


Beyond the Grey

by FireThatFox



Category: Naruto
Genre: Big Brother Itachi, Changes in character lineup, Child abuse tag warning, Chuunin Exams, Conditioning, Dark Sai, Dark mentality, E- when they are legal, F/M, Guilting, I consider age 16 the age of consent, I don't write underage sex it's gross, I'm making some events up obviously, Innocent children and how they become cold hearted killers, Jealous Uchiha Sasuke, Less moral Kakashi, Menma AU-Nine Tails Vessel, Menma is not Naruto, Menma isn't an easy son, Menma really doesn't care for anyone but Sakura, Minato and Kushina are still alive for now, Minato doesn't like how obsessive Menma is over Sakura, Minato is the Hokage, Minato knows his son better than Kushina, More realistic Anbu Kakashi transition, PG at first while they are still minors, Possessive Menma, Protective Menma, Sakura will not be cannon, Sasuke the way he should have been written, Strong slightly darker Sakura, T&I, Timeline What Timeline, Uchiha Massacre, Underage warning as a precaution, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Unhealthy Relationships, blood bonds, controlling and obsessive/possessive Menma, more selfish Kakashi, not canon, ofcourse nin can drink at age 12 sooo, result in changes in canon character behavior, the Harunos are not nice parents, the way shinobi were suposed to be, this is not a cute and fluffy fic, unbreakable bonds, whatever still sick, won't always follow RTN, won't always follow the events in canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:53:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 19
Words: 47,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25666984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireThatFox/pseuds/FireThatFox
Summary: *Menma, from 'Road to Ninja', takes the place of Naruto 'Canon', in my tale."He's troubled Kakashi.  You're the only one who can control him.  I'm putting the Haruno girl on your team with him.  She is his only friend.  I'm counting on you."  The Third Hokage took a long drag of his pipe as he stared at the former Anbu captain with steady eyes."Right."  Kakashi Hatake shoved his hands in his pockets and slouched even farther into himself.  "Cause I'm a role model for messed up kids right?"The Third Hokage blew a long stream of smoke out of his nose and shook his head slowly.  "No...not messed up kids Kakashi, just...misunderstood."
Relationships: Gaara & Haruno Sakura, Gaara/Haruno Sakura, Haruno Sakura & Hatake Kakashi, Haruno Sakura & Sasori, Haruno Sakura & Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura & Uzumaki Menma, Haruno Sakura/Hatake Kakashi, Haruno Sakura/Sasori, Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura/Uzumaki Menma, Team 7 - Relationship
Comments: 173
Kudos: 327





	1. Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> I know I have a lot of open fics...but that's okay. I'll finish them all eventually. This is just an introduction to set the mood.

“Why are you crying?” Menma bent over at the waist. 

He had seen the girl from across the park. She had come running around the bend on the pathway, tears streaming down her face, little fists held to her eyes, the epitome of misery. Usually he wouldn’t be bothered by such a thing, but her unusual hair color and her bright green eyes had caught his attention. She was different, like him.

“I’m not crying!” The girl glared at him...through her tears.

“Of course not.” Menma smiled, pulling a cloth napkin from his back pocket. 

“For your dry face.” He pushed the napkin into her hands forcing her to take it before it fell to the ground or got blown away by the Spring breeze.

“I wasn’t crying.” The girl insisted, even as she wiped her eyes and reddened cheeks with his napkin.

“Clearly.” Menma pursed his lips, trying not to smile less it offend her further. “So, mind if I ask...what you aren’t crying about?”

“I told you, I wasn’t…”

“Crying.” Menma finished her sentence for her with a smile he could no longer hold back. “We’ve established that, moving on though...what’s wrong?”

“My forehead...is too big and the other kids at the playground...are making fun of me.” The little girl sniffed, throwing a hand out behind her indicating the playground in case he wasn’t aware of where it was.

“Hum.” He crouched down beside her, where she had sat down on the ground in the middle of the path, and moved her hair from her forehead. “It doesn’t look very big to me.”

Green eyes, as bright as the new spring grass met his summer blue. “It doesn’t?” She asked him hopefully.

Menma smiled at the girl again. “Nope.”

The pink haired girl’s cheeks blushed a beautiful shade as light and becoming as her hair color. She leapt to her feet and threw her arms around Menma’s neck, moving him back a step or two. “Thank you!”

“Uh, no problem.” He stood there not sure what to do at first. No one had hugged him before. In fact, he had expected the little girl to scream and run away from him when he had approached her. Everyone did...everyone had at least, before her.

Slowly, Menma’s arms rose and wrapped around the little girl’s waist. Ducking his head to her hair, he asked her…”So, what’s your name? My name is Menma. Menma Uzumaki.”

Pink hair tickled his nose as the girl drew back and linked her fingers behind her back, one foot pointed, dragging the toe of her shoe along the park path behind her in a semi circle…”My name is Sakura, Sakura Haruno. It’s nice to meet you...Menma.”

“Yeah.” Menma smiled wide and rubbed the back of his head, his ears turning pink. “It’s nice to meet you too...Sakura.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Menma makes his claim.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of the best things about writing about a character that only appeared in one movie of Naruto is that I can make his personality whatever I want it to be.
> 
> Kishimoto laid the base of course...and this is me...running with it.
> 
> They are children here mind you. So there is none of the sexual tension, or sexual base to prompt Menma's actions here. He is simply a possessive, controlling individual who saw something unique, something that had potential...he sees in Sakura everything she can be, before anyone else...and takes her, because that is what my Menma does. If he wants something he takes it. If he claims something, it belongs to him. If he makes a promise...he keeps it.

Menma wasn’t sure how long they had stood there looking at one another, but he didn’t mind. He had been reading on the bench, away from the other kids, never having cared for the attention that came with being the Fourth Hokage’s son. He preferred to be alone. He preferred to read...books never gave him their opinions.

Most kids, after their first run in with Menma, left him alone. 

He had been surprised at his own actions when he had rolled his book up, shoved it in his back pocket, and walked over to the sobbing girl. He had seen her before, alone like him, reading like him, on the benches in the park. 

Unlike him though, she seemed to want to make friends, to talk to the other kids at the park...for whatever reason. He didn’t understand why. She had her books to keep her company. Her mind.

Maybe it was because she was a girl, he thought, girls need other girls to talk to. At least, that’s what his mother, Kushina Uzumaki, had always said when someone asked why Menma didn’t like to participate in class, or why he never showed up for village functions with his parents. He’s a boy, she would make excuses for him, it’s what boys do, she said over and over...until people stopped asking about him.

“Why do you try to make friends with people who don’t want to be your friend?” Menma asked Sakura as he led her over to the bench he had been reading on.

“...because I don’t have any friends.” Sakura said, her voice only slightly squeaky.

“Hum, I see.” Menma cocked his head to the side and observed the girl while he thought her situation over. “You don’t need friends, you just need ‘a’ friend.”

Sakura blinked. “A friend?”

“Yes. Me.” Menma smiled at her. “I will be your friend Sakura.”

“Even if my forehead is too big?” Sakura smiled at him.

Menma grinned at his friend, she was coming out of her shell, she was witty...he knew it, she was different from the rest of those front line fodder his father kept trying to call his peers. She was like him. “Especially because your forehead is too big, Sakura.”

“Deal...Me n ma…” Sakura enunciated each syllable of his name playfully, her hands behind her back as she leaned forward and smiled at him. Maybe she only needed one friend, one good friend.

Menma’s grin widened at her moxy. “I’ll make you a deal Sakura.” He had no idea what he thought he was doing, maybe it was instinct but…”I promise to always be your friend, no matter what, if you promise me, that you’ll never cry again...without good cause.”

He watched as the little girl’s eyes sharpened before him, he held back the smirk that threatened to lift the right corner of his mouth, and waited. She was giving his proposal serious thought, the same seriousness with which he had offered it to her, he was pleased.

Sakura smirked and stuck out her hand to the little boy in front of her. “Deal Menma.”

Menma nodded, satisfied with her confidence. Confidence she had been sorely lacking only moments ago when she had run around the bend in the park path, tears streaming down her cheeks. 

“Deal.” He pulled the kunai he had stolen from his father, the Fourth Hokage, from his belt and cut his hand open, then taking her unresistant hand in his, he cut her palm in exactly the same place he had cut himself, and pushed their hands together, their blood mixing with one another's.

“Last chance to back out Sakura.” Menma’s blue eyes held hers, giving her one last out.

“I promise.” Sakura said softly, her green eyes rose to meet his piercing blue, blue as steady and cold as ice.

“Good.” Menma folded his middle finger past hers, where their hands were joined, with his free hand, he folded her middle finger, like he had folded his and sealed their agreement with a small surge of his chakra.

It burned and he knew it must be burning her as well but she didn’t pull back, she didn’t move...she just held her breath, her eyes never leaving his, her face determined...she was perfect.

Black Kurama lifted his head within Menma, ears perked forward in interest. _‘What have you done boy, who have you shared your chakra with and why?’_

 _‘Her name is Sakura Haruno, we have a new friend Kurama, she belongs to us now’_ , Menma told the beast.

 _‘You hardly know the girl, she is young, are you sure that was wise’_ , Black Kurama asked.

 _‘I know enough, do not question me’_ , Menma smiled at Sakura who was now looking down at their joined hands.

“What did you do Menma?” Sakura cocked her head to the side. “It...tingles and burns a bit.”

“I gave you a little of my chakra, we are bonded now. We will be friends, forever.” He watched Sakura’s green eyes widen, then relax as she smiled and nodded.

“Can I...give you some of my chakra too?” Sakura looked up at her new friend.

“As you wish.” Menma was pleased, it was more than he had hoped for. She had offered her chakra to him, he hadn’t had to ask her. She was already so responsive toward him and they had just met. 

The beast was cautious where Menma was confident. Truthfully, Menma had seen Sakura before and had wondered about her, had chosen her out of the masses unsure how he should approach her...until today. He felt that it was a sign, she had been made for him.

“Focus your energy in your veins. Chakra moves though channels like your blood moves through your body. Focus it into the palm of your hand, then release it.”

Sakura closed her eyes and licked her lips. She could feel an invisible heat moving behind her eyes, she tried to visualize it as it moved through her veins, no...channels, her chakra channels. Slowly she pushed it, gently, it ebbed against her push at first, so she pushed harder until she could feel it pooling in her palm.

“Now Sakura, push your chakra into me, like I pushed mine into you.” Menma commanded.

Sakura focused on his voice and felt a surge of heat and pain rush through her body, into her hand through her palm. Her knees grew weak, she stumbled backward, Menma’s other hand shot out and grabbed her free one, pulled her forward, back to him and held her in his arms, their hands still linked.

“You did it. I can’t believe you did it! Good job Sakura, you...you are truly my equal.” Menma purred into her long pink hair as Sakura closed her eyes.

“Menma, I’m...so tired.” Sakura whispered as he held her.

“Sleep Sakura. I’ll be here when you wake.” Menma gathered the girl in his arms and lifted her up, carrying her to a nearby tree where he sat her down beside him, their hands still linked, his arm around her shoulder drawing her closer. Menma kissed the top of Sakura’s head. “I’ll always be here for you. I’ll always be with you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapters will get longer...but this came into my head in between Twisted and Tenacity, the other fics I am writing atm...so you know, had to?


	3. Chapter 3

Menma closed his eyes and let the pulsation of their chakra blending together in his channels flow over his body. It was warm and smooth like Sakura, calming and peaceful. He had made the right decision. She was perfect for him and they would be bonded forever now, an unbreakable bond, an unbreakable friendship.

Menma laid his cheek against Sakura’s soft fly away hair and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath and let the sounds of the park wash over them both as she slept in his arms. This was what had been missing he realized, this was what he had wanted. A friend. Menma cracked his left eye open. He hated it when his father was right.

Just yesterday Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage, his father had lectured him about the importance of making friends, “Menma, friends are important. You need them to grow. You said you wanted to be strong, to be the most powerful shinobi the world has ever seen right? Well, you can’t do it alone. You need friends. Bonds are important. You’ll understand when you get older.”

His father had ruffled his hair and walked away, leaving him alone in his room to scowl at what he thought, at the time, were ridiculous words. He didn’t need friends, he didn’t need help to be strong, to surpass his father. No, he didn’t need anyone, but maybe it would be nice to have one friend. A friend, like he had told Sakura.

Menma rubbed his cheek against Sakura’s hair and smiled to himself. ‘When I get older’, he chuckled, but quietly, he didn’t want to wake his new friend. ‘Why wait until I get older to understand things, why wait until tomorrow what I am clearly capable of achieving today. Why let those social boundaries hold me back, lock me down.’

Sakura moved her head in her sleep, rubbing her nose against Menma’s collar bone. Menma watched her sleep peacefully against his chest. He had a friend now. He had that bond now. There wasn’t anything he couldn’t do now.

A small blonde girl with short hair watched Menma Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno from across the playground. She cocked her head to the side confused. The Fourth Hokage’s son Menma Uzumaki was holding the cry baby Sakura Haruno. Ino Yamanaka shrugged her shoulders, turned and walked back to her friends at the swings. She was going to check on the girl, she felt sorry for her, but if the Hokage’s son was comforting her, a boy everyone feared, she would be okay.

With one last look in the direction of the blonde head bent to the pink, Ino forgot about Sakura Haruno, giggling at something another of her friends had just said to her.

One by one parents came to pick their children up from the park, one by one they cast curious glances at the Haruno girl and the Fourth Hokage’s son cuddled up under the tree in the back of the park alone. One by one they left the park until only Sakura and Menma remained.

“Sakura.” Menma kissed the top of Sakura’s head gently. “It’s getting late, maybe I should take you home.”

She didn’t move or make a sound.

“Sakura, wake up.” Menma placed his palm to her chest, over her heart, and shot a quick pulse of chakra into her skin. Warmth spread out from his palm into her skin and up his wrist. He closed his eyes. He could feel it strengthening already from the touch, their bond. He sighed. It felt nice. It was relaxing, safe.

Sakura’s eye flew open. She turned her head up to look into Menma’s blue eyes and smiled. “Menma, did I fall asleep? I’m sorry.”

She pushed herself up and rubbed her eyes, Menma’s arm still over her shoulders. “How long was I asleep?” She looked around the vacant park, saw the sun setting in the west and blinked sleepily at him making him smile.

“Just a few hours. You needed it. I doubt you’ve ever used that much chakra before, if you’ve used your chakra before at all?” He asked her.

“I didn’t know I could. I didn’t know how.” She looked down at her hands. “It was amazing. Thank you Menma, for showing me how to do that.” She grinned up at him.

“I’ll show you everything. We’ll do everything together from now on Sakura.” He promised her making her smile so widely that her eyes crinkled to bouncing half moons of delight.

“I would love that Menma!” Sakura wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. “Thank you!”

Menma closed his eyes. It wasn’t awkward anymore. It felt good, it felt right. Black Kurama swished his tail back and forth inside his mind’s eye. ‘Her voice is too high pitched.’

‘Quiet. She’s perfect.’ Menma silenced the fox.

“Come on, let’s get you home before your parents start to get worried about you.” Menma helped Sakura to her feet and took her hand in his, pulling her down the deserted park path toward the heart of the village.

“They probably haven’t even noticed I’m gone.” She mumbled under her breath.

Menma looked at her sullen face as they walked out of the park. Did she not have a good relationship with her parents? She didn’t say anymore, so he didn’t ask.

Once they were in front of her house Sakura faced Menma with the intent of hugging him goodbye. Instead, Menma picked Sakura up in his arms and jumped from the ground up to her window ledge on the second floor of her house.

“Menma!” Sakura clutched at the front of his shirt. “How did you, how did you do that! Only real shinobi can do that!” Her eyes were impossibly wide as she looked up at him.

“Sakura. I’m the nine tails jinchuriki.” He laughed at her surprise with delight.

“Yes but still.” Sakura mumbled as he slid her window open and set her down over the edge.

“I’ve been manipulating chakra since I could remember Sakura. I can do more right now at the age of eight than most genin.” He smirked at her open mouthed shock.

“That’s amazing Menma. You’re amazing.” Sakura hugged him as he sat on her window sill, his feet dangling over the edge into her room.

“It’s nothing really, kinda boring actually.” He shrugged, pleased at her attention. The same attention that annoyed him from others but Sakura was different, because she was his.

“I wish I could do that.” 

“What, use chakra? You did earlier today.” He reminded her, holding his hand up, the line from their bond clearly visible against his pale skin. “You did great, it was incredible.”

“Yeah, and then I fell asleep.” Sakura sighed. “I’ll never be as good as you.”

Menma considered her words. It was true, she was a civilian born and he was the Hokage’s son, the son of not only one powerful, near legendary clan, but two. However Menma didn’t know the definition of, or the word never or can’t. “Sure you will. If you want to be.”

“Right.” Sakura laughed and rolled her eyes.

“I know you will be a powerful, skilled shinobi on day Sakura.” Menma was serious. Sakura could see it in his eyes.

“You really think so Menma?” Her voice was so hopeful and so cute.

“I do.” He gave her a thumbs up. “Or I wouldn’t have bothered talking to you, you know.” He laughed as she slapped at him playfully.

“SAKURA!” A woman’s voice called from deep within the house.

“That’s my mom.” Sakura said apologetically, turning to look at her door, then back to Menma. “I don’t want you to go but if they find you here, well…”

“Right. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He swung his legs over the side of her window and stood on the ledge. He didn’t want to get her into trouble. Looking back over his shoulder he said, “Get some rest Sakura, we have a big day ahead of us tomorrow okay?”

“Huh?” Sakura cocked her head to the side confused. “What are we going to do tomorrow?”

Menma laughed as he jumped off her window ledge. “Train of course!” 

Sakura watched him touch the ground with a small puff of dust, then jump to the roof of her neighbor’s house running swiftly into the darkening night.

“Amazing.” Sakura twirled around her room before going downstairs for dinner.

The next morning Sakura woke to the sound of her bedroom window sliding open and sat up to the vision of Menma crawling through her window into her room with a slight smile on his face.

“Here.” He sat down on the end of her bed without invitation. “I brought you something.”

Sakura took the small napkin wrapped box from his hands and opened it. “Oh!” She smiled down at the icing smothered muffin. “It looks delicious Menma, thank you!”

Menma grinned at her rubbing the back of his neck, pleased with her response to his gift. “I already ate mine before I came to get you.” He shooed away the half she had broken off for him. “That one is all yours.”

“Thanks Menma! I’ve never had an iced muffin all to myself before.” She bit into the gooey goodness, a sappy smile on her face.

Menma watched her chew. ‘Never had one to herself before?’ He looked around her room. It was pretty sparse. The futon she was sitting on was lumpy. Her bed cover was old and worn, mended in most places but still worn, the edges frayed. Sakura’s desk was old and had clearly seen better days. The few books she had on her shelf were dog eared and well thumbed through.

The dress she was wearing was the same one she had been wearing yesterday. Did she sleep in it? His eyes narrowed as he took in the other small details of her room.

Why hadn’t he noticed before, why hadn’t he noticed last night? He had only been looking at Sakura, he realized and hadn’t taken in the shabbiness of her room, or her clothes. Menma’s mouth tightened at the corners and he clenched his jaw in anger. She lived in a three story house with a private courtyard. He doubted the rest of her house looked as worn or as second hand as her room did.

He would fix that for her. He would take care of her. He had chosen her above all others to be his friend. She belonged to him, she would want for nothing. He would make sure of it.

“So, I was thinking we could go down to the river today, behind the cliff. You know the old training grounds. No one goes there anymore so we won’t be annoyed by gawkers or nosey people.” He watched her eat her muffin.

“It’s a good place to train. I’ve explored most of it already but there are still a few caves that I haven’t been to yet. It’s really neat. I think you’d really like it.”

“Mhm!” Sakura nodded her head enthusiastically with a mouthful of muffin.

“Great! Finish eating. I’ll be back in ten minutes.” He jumped back out of her window and was gone before she could blink.

Sakura finished her muffin, washed her face and brushed her teeth. She had just finished pulling her hair into a ponytail when he jumped back through her window.

“I’ll have to remember not to lock my window from now on.” She laughed.

“Locking it won’t stop me from coming in.” He told her with another smirk of his.

“What do you mean? If it’s locked, you can’t get in.” She laughed at him.

“Yeah?” He walked over to the window and stepped back out onto the ledge. “Lock it Sakura.”

Sakura nodded, walked to the window and locked it, waving enthusiastically to him on the other side. Menma pressed his hand to the locked pane of glass, closed his eyes and concentrated. Sakura watched as dark red-black chakra seeped from his palm through the window and over the locking mechanism at its base and melted it to nothing.

Menma slid the window back open and chuckled at an open mouthed Sakura.

“My window lock.” She groaned.

“Was useless Sakura. As you can see, anyone could get in with a crappy civilian lock like that one. You were never protected, you only thought you were.” He explained.

The weight of his words began to sink in and she nodded in complete understanding.

“Come on.” He took her hand and pulled her out the window after him.

Sakura screamed. “Menma!”

“It’s okay Sakura.” He caught her in his arms. “If you fall, I’ll catch you.” He laughed into her hair before setting her down on the ground next to him.

“You...you did that on purpose you jerk! I didn’t fall, you pulled me out the window after you!” Sakura tried to punch him but he blocked it. She tried to kick him but he grabbed her foot and she fell on her butt.

“Menma!” She growled at him which of course made him laugh at her even harder.

“First thing we need to work on is your taijutsu Sakura. Come on, I want to show you the old training grounds.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her along after him as he ran down the street. “...and Sakura, don’t worry. I’m the only one who can push you around from now on.”

“Whatever.” Sakura stomped after him.

Menma led Sakura through the reading park, past the library, behind the fenced off biological research and development sanctuary to an overgrown, hidden path.

“I never knew this was here.” Sakura whispered.

“Why are you whispering?” Menma looked back over his shoulder at her curiously.

“Well, it’s a secret right? No one is supposed to know we’re here right?” Sakura asked him.

“No one is around, trust me.” He told her, pulling on her hand so she could walk beside him.

“How do you know?” Sakura looked left and right repeatedly just in case he was wrong.

“I would sense them of course.” He smiled to himself. 

No one knew, not even his parents what a good sensor he had already become. Menma supposed he got that talent from his father. Minato was the best sensor in the world, in history aside from the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju who had long since passed away.

“Menma, that’s, not possible.” Sakura choked out. 

She was apprehensive to disagree with him. She could tell he was the type of boy would didn’t like to be questioned. She knew from the other children on the playground that he was really intelligent and talented but difficult to get along with. He didn’t seem to mind what she said though. In fact, he seemed to be thinking of how to answer her before speaking.

Finally, he spoke. “Anything is possible Sakura. If you can think it, if you can dream it, it can come true. You just have to believe in yourself.”

Sakura blinked. He was so much more than she had expected him to be, her new friend. She adored him. “Okay Menma, I believe you. I believe in you.”

Menma studied Sakura’s little face with an expression far too cynical for an eight year old. “You really mean it don’t you?” He watched the smile start at the corners of her mouth, pulling up ever so slightly on each side.

“Yeah, I do. I believe in you Menma. You’re my friend, my best friend.” She scrunched her face up, her eyes dancing up at him as he looked down at her.

“Best friends.” Menma nodded. “Come on Sakura, let’s go practice our taijutsu.” Menma patted her on the head and ran down the path ahead of her.

“Yeah!” Sakura threw her small little fist up into the air, picked her feet up and tore down the path after her friend.


	4. Chapter 4

The Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze was in his office when he felt his son’s chakra signature vanish without a trace. Standing abruptly, he pushed his chair back from his desk and looked out the windows of the Hokage Tower. What was his son up to now…

Menma had always been an unusual child. As a baby he never cried, never fused or whined. He learned to walk six months before he was expected to. Had controlled use of his chakra by the age of six and spoke his first words at the age of seven. Not because there was anything wrong with his vocal cords, no, it was because he couldn’t be bothered to speak to those around him.

Minato and Kushina had worried about him constantly. Menma never showed any interest in any of his peers, other children older or younger than him. He preferred to be alone, reveled in solitude. His personality clashed terribly with his wife’s which in turn constantly put their home on nails. It was draining, because they cared. They loved him but admitted to themselves, they simply didn’t understand him.

They tried to understand him, tried to be there for him but he either pushed them away, ignored them or simply ran off without telling them, to who knows where for days on end, concealing his chakra so they couldn’t locate him. He would turn up eventually. When he felt like it.

Menma wasn’t a bad child. He didn’t hurt the other children, bully them or get into fights. Minato thought it was because Menma deemed it unnecessary. His ‘Peers’, were below him and therefore undeserving of his time, anger or animosity. He was simply indifferent to their existence.

Menma reminded him of Kakashi when he had first met him. A genius, naturally talented, excelled in everything he tried, mastered everything he did. A loner. Minato and Kushina had tried everything from trying to force him to interact with other children to leaving him to his own devices. The later being the most harmonious of the two for all of them.

Menma simply had no interest in anyone else around him, not even his parents.

“He'll grow out of it. That’s just how he is. It’s okay.” Kushina would say to him, but he knew she was saying it in a vain attempt to console herself. She didn’t really believe any of it and neither did he, but she didn’t have a solution anymore than he did.

Menma didn’t keep a regular schedule. He went to the academy when he felt like it. He trained when he wanted to, ate when he wanted to and slept when he wanted to. Lately however, that had changed. For the last three weeks Minato noticed his son spending a lot of time in the park and sticking to a fairly regular schedule. Of course, he wondered why.

Menma despised the park. He loathed being around other people. Yet everyday, for the last three weeks, Minato could feel his chakra moving steadily to the park, stopping in the same spot and staying there until noon, then leaving for an hour only to return to the same spot. Then every evening before Minato would leave the Hokage Tower, he could feel his son’s chakra signature leave the park, just before dusk and return home.

Except for last night. 

Yesterday started out like all the other days had for the last three weeks. However, at dusk, instead of going home, Menma went to the civilian district on the other side of the market with another very small, very faint chakra signature.

Minato had looked up from the mission scroll he had been reading in surprise. He was so engrossed in his work he couldn’t recall if the second chakra signature had been by his son in the park earlier in the day or not. He wondered who it could be that had finally befriended his son, or rather, had been befriended by his son. He vowed to pay closer attention to his son’s movements tomorrow.

So that morning, when he had been in his office and felt Menma’s chakra signature move through the market, he became curious. Minato wanted to know what had suddenly changed in his son to make him break the steady routine he had kept to for the last three weeks. So, he flashed to the market just in time to see his son buying two sticky muffins, individually wrapped.

Minato could barely believe his eyes. Two? Menma didn’t have a very large sweet tooth. He never ate more than one of the stick sweet treats at a time. It was possible Menma was buying one to save for later, but Minato thought it unlikely. Who was the other one for? 

Only when one of his own three pronged kunai whizzed through the air did he realize his mistake. Menma knew he was there, and had used the opportunity to launch a surprise attack allowing him to disappear. His son was more talented than he thought. He had sensed him. His son was a sensor nin, like him. It had made him smile.

Try as he might, Minato was unable to pick up his son's chakra signature again. It flashed in and out of focus all over the village for the next twenty minutes, clearly a rouse to confuse his pursuer. Minato was proud, impressed and even more curious now than he had been before his son’s visit to the market. He just wanted to know what his son was doing, what he was so interested in, who he was with but Menma was clever, much more clever than Minato had given him credit for.

Returning to his office, Minato sat down at his desk once more to finish his morning reports with a slight shake of his head. He had just picked up his last report when he felt his son’s signature again, in the civilian district, in the same spot it had been the other night and he wondered, is that where his new friend lived? Before he could get a decent read on it’s exact location, his son’s signature vanished.

Menma was concealing his signature again and Minato knew from that moment on, if he felt his son’s chakra signature, it was because Menma allowed it.

“Damn.” Minato chuckled, leaning his head against the glass window of his office. “It won’t be long before he surpasses me, if he hasn’t already.”

“Wow, so cool.” Sakura’s mouth fell open in awe at the sight before her. “This is incredible. I never knew this was here Menma.”

“Those that used to train here, live here are either dead, or have left Konoha never to return. This temple, this training ground has been, forgotten.” Menma stood beside Sakura, his head tilted back a bit to take in the full magnificence of the training grounds before them. “Come Sakura, it’s ours now.” He reached his hand out to her.

“Ours?” Sakura didn’t understand, wasn’t this still part of Konoha, even if no one but them came here anymore, it didn’t belong to them, it couldn’t.

“What happens to something that no one wants, that which is cast aside?” He asked her, letting his hand fall to his side. She was logical, he could speak to her plainly he knew. He had learned this from watching her for the last three weeks.

“You mean thrown away? Like trash?” She asked him.

“Yes, forgotten, discarded because it was no longer of any use to someone.” He watched Sakura’s face as she thought over his words.

“Then it becomes obsolete.” She replied, making him smile.

“Yes, and when someone comes along and picks the trash up, finds meaning in it, finds a use for it, who does it belong to?” He watched her eyes, they were so expressive.

“Well…” Sakura looked from Menma to the cliffs before them with the bridge, the temple and what looked like individual entrances to the cliff side’s inner cave system. “I suppose it would belong to whomever found meaning in it after everyone else cast it aside.”

“Exactly Sakura.” Menma waved his hand before them. “This has been cast aside. No one wanted it. I found it, have a use for it, I have restored it’s value to it, by desiring it. It belongs to me, and now you. It’s ours.” He jumped high up into the air flipping backward over and over until his feet rested flat against the top most arch of the temple entrance. “If you want it to be.”

Unable to speak, Sakura nodded. There were a few flaws in his reasoning she thought but…

Menma jumped down from the faded red pillars to stand before Sakura. “Come on, I want to show you the rest of it.” He took her small hand in his and pulled her across the bridge, across the river into the dark.

Menma knew he was the only one to enter these forgotten grounds in a very long time. He knew his father had trained here as a child with one of the legendary Sannin, Jiraiya the Toad Sage, over twenty two years ago.

“The main entrance was sealed off after the third Great Shinobi War a few years after my father was named the Fourth Hokage.” Menma told Sakura as they walked deeper and deeper into the temple.

Sakura listened to Menma as the walls of the temple cave turned from wood to volcanic rock. The further they got away from the entrance, the darker it grew. “Are you sure this is...safe Menma? I read that abandoned caves can be dangerous.” Sakura whispered.

“It’s safe Sakura. Trust me.” He pulled her closer to his side by the arm, half hugging her as they walked deeper and deeper into the dark.

“I can’t see very well though, it’s really dark Menma.” She began to slow her steps.

Menma looked down at her. She was withering her bottom lip between her teeth, she was nervous. “I forgot, you can’t see like I can.” He apologized to her.

“Like you can? You can see in the dark?” She asked him surprised.

“Well yeah. I told you, I’m the nine tailed fox’s jinchuuriki, Sakura. Foxes can see in the dark.” he laughed. “Sorry, I thought you knew that.”

Sakura shook her head back and forth. “Nope, but hey, if you gave me some of your chakra then, um, why can’t I see in the dark?” 

She frowned. She wasn’t sure how this whole chakra thing worked. Her parents were merchants. Even if they had thought of telling her how chakra worked, which they hadn’t, they probably didn’t know much more than she did.

“I gave you some of my chakra, not the nine tails chakra. It’s a little too strong for you just yet.” He laughed when she crossed her arms and pouted at him. “Hey, don’t be like that. It’s not my fault. I tell you what, train hard, get stronger and I promise… I will share Kurama’s chakra with you.”

Sakura’s eyes lit up. “You will?” Her fingers dug into his arm in her excitement and she bounced up and down on her heels.

‘Bad idea boy. She is too small, too young. Too weak.’ Black Kurama growled at Menma.

‘It isn’t your decision, it’s mine. Your chakra belongs to me. It’s mine to control. It’s mine to give away.’ Menma reminded Kurama. ‘Have you forgotten Kurama, what happened to you the last time you challenged me? Do you need a reminder fox?’

‘No.’ Kurama curled up into a ball sniffing mournfully. ‘I remember, fine. Do what you like. If she dies, you only have yourself to blame for your foolishness.’

‘I’m not wrong about her. You’ll see Kurama’, Menma dismissed the fox and turned back to Sakura.

Menma looked down into Sakura’s green eyes, murky in the dim light. “When you’re strong enough to control it, to contain it Sakura, I’ll give you half of Black Kurama’s chakra. I promise.”

Sakura opened her mouth to thank him but he stopped her with a hand over her mouth.

“I’ll ask you again, if you’re sure when the time comes. Kurama’s chakra is a gift as much as it is a curse and once I give it to you, I can’t take it back. We will be bonded together for eternity.” He warned her.

Eternity. Sakura nodded. She was young, but she understood what he meant. “I understand Menma. I’ll give you my answer then, when the time comes.” She smiled a shy little smile at him. “Until then, show me the rest of our temple.”

Perfect. Menma twined their little fingers together. She was perfect.

Menma led Sakura to the back of the temple cavern, down a narrow passageway that led to the heart of the cave system. After the first six or seven twists and turns Sakura had gotten so turned around she didn’t know which way was the way they had come from. She hoped Menma knew how to get back out or they would both be in trouble.

As though he could read her thoughts he explained that the caves, their corridors and even the buildings on the outer walls of the cliffside and the cliff face were designed to misled, trap and confuse enemy shinobi. “These caves were built into the cliffside by the First Hokage and his brother the Lord Second.” Menma told her.

“Ah.” Sakura understood now. No wonder they were so complex. The Lord First and the Lord Second, both Senju and brother’s were geniuses, considered the best of their time, legends and founders of Konoha, their village. “It’s impressive.” Her voice was quiet.

Menma chuckled lowly. “You haven’t seen anything yet. Just wait until we get to the heart of the temple, what you’ve seen so far pales in comparison.”

“Better than a secret training ground built into the side of a cave by the Lord First and the Lord Second?” She didn’t believe it.

“Yeah, much better.” He smiled in anticipation of her reaction.

It took them another half hour, a few stumbles over rocks and one slip down a steep incline, but eventually they made it to the end of the narrow corridor.

“I can see a light Menma, there. I can smell fresh water and plants!” Sakura pointed excitedly in front of them and slightly to the left.

“That’s it, that’s what I’ve been wanting to show you, the main reason I brought you here Sakura.” He quickened his pace, pulling her along behind him. 

“Look.” Menma breathed out as they ran the last few steps, pushed past the thin curtain of hanging vines into a wide open sun lit space underground, where no sunlight should be.

“Oh kami.” Sakura clasped her hands to her mouth taking an involuntary step backward in shock.

“For you Sakura. For us.” Menma’s eyes were soft as they looked down at his friend. “A place just for us.”

“For us.” Sakura nodded, her eyes wide trying to absorb everything she saw. It was like a whole new world, an underground world, just for them.

“Come on.” Menma laughed and pulled her into paradise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you've read my other fics, you'll see that I am a little more than fond of the thought of underground secret bases/worlds/hideouts. ~


	5. Chapter 5

Cold slate eyes moved back and forth, surveying the surrounding terrain, accessing the enemy shinobi hidden just beyond the rise. Amatures, they hadn’t even sensed him, not that they would, he was above their calibre. Iwa should have sent their best to meet him. Instead they sent...them. 

‘Four, six, ten…’ Kakashi Hatake, Anbu Captain of Konoha counted each enemy chakra signature in his head.

‘Pity.’ He dropped from the top most branch of the tree he had chosen for his look out. If they had sent more, they might have had a chance against him. At least, they might have lived a little longer. As it was…

Hatake shot across the distance that seperated him from his foes, a ball of intense chirping lightning in the palm of his hand. “One.” He struck through the chest cavity of his first kill.

“Two, three.” He counted out the falling dead, spinning mid air, kicking out then slamming into, “Four, five, six.” He tore through their defense with ease, their blood dripping from his elbow as he continued to dart left then right.

“Seven, eight, nine.” A spray of blood warmed his cheek. The ninth body fell from his fist. Kakashi shook the internal tissue mass from his fingertips as he stared down his last opponent.

“The copy nin of Konoha.” The enemy shinobi fell to his knees before Kakashi. “Please, kami please have mercy.” The man bowed his head to Hatake exposing his neck.

Kakashi took one step, then two toward the man. “Get up.” He growled. It was pathetic, such a cowardly display.

With shaking knees the man rose to his feet, his head still bowed.

“Look at me.” Kakashi commanded, voice low and ominous.

The man looked up, the fear in his eyes made Kakashi loathe him even more than his cowardly display of submission. The man’s legs were trembling, his breathing loud and harsh, a nearly comical contrast to the beautiful sun dappled trees around them. The stench of piss filled the air.

“Shinobi don’t beg for mercy.” Hatake stepped into the blow, his fist cracking with intense heat and light. The chidori. “...and you should always look death in the eye.”

The enemy shinobi’s form buckled and folded under the impact of Kakashi’s strike. Kakashi pulled back swiftly, the man’s body standing upright on it’s own lifeless accord for the spanse of a heart beat, then crumbled to the ground at Kakashi’s feet.

“You’ll find no mercy here.” Hatake shook his hand, drops of blood splattered across a nearby tree, across the petals of a forest flower swaying peacefully in the wind. “Mission complete.” 

Anbu Captain Kakashi Hatake straightened to his full height, cracked his back, then disappeared in a puff of smoke. The only evidence he had ever been there were the bodies and the blood he had left behind.

“Again.” Menma held his hand up for Sakura to practice striking. “Step into it, you won’t hurt me. Hit me like you mean it. Strike as though you’re striking through my hand, don’t hold back. Come on Sakura, again!” Menma encouraged her.

“Okay. I got it. I got this.” Sakura balled up her hand into a fist and struck out against his palm once more.

“Keep going. Only take a moment to align yourself, no more, anymore time is a waste and leaves you open for attack. Do not hesitate, you must learn to hit with accuracy. If you’re tired we will rest, but not yet. Keep going. Hit me in the same place over and over, again.” Menma ordered.

Sakura nodded. They had been doing this for over an hour now. She had only managed to hit him three times in the same spot on his palm. She needed to do better. She had to try harder. “I’m going to do this. I want to get stronger.”

Menma smiled at her determination. “You will. I’ll help you. Together Sakura, now come on, again.”

They had spent the first two hours exploring the cavern together. Menma marveled at how expressive Sakura could be. Before he had started observing her in the park he thought there were only a few staple facial expressions one was able to display, but she proved him wrong. It was one of the many reasons he continued to watch her in the park, why he had continued to go to the park to observe her.

She had the typical happy, sad, angry expression that everyone else had, but he soon found out she possessed so many different levels of each that he couldn’t stop looking at her. Never before had he been so eager to watch someone, so interested in someone. The stupid fox didn’t understand. Black Kurama didn’t have the foresight to see what he saw. She was life. She was brimming with energy and it drew him to her like a magnet.

Menma had been on his way here, to the old training grounds, passing quickly through the park when she had caught his eye. At first it was her hair, but what had made him glance back, a second time, had been the look in her eyes. The wide eyed look of shock and awe. It had caught him so off guard he had actually stumbled, his foot missing the next branch causing him to tumble and fall to the ground at the edge of the park.

Annoyed and angry at himself he had jumped to his feet, fists clenched, when he heard her yell. His head had snapped up, his own eyes wide as he took in her stance. A fighter that one, he watched as she squared off against a feral dog that had found its way into the park. A warrior.

Normally, Menma wouldn’t be bothered by such a sight. A small girl, cornered in the park by a big dog was of no interest to him, but as he took in the entirety of the scene he noticed, not one of the children were going to help her. Bystanders, the lot of them. Cowards, all of them. 

‘Where were the parents?’, he asked himself. Where were the heroes, the legends, the do-gooders Konoha boasted of.

No where that he could see.

The girl stood alone, tiny fists raised in defiance of the threat before her, teeth grit preparing for the impact, the bite, the tear…acceptance. He could see it in her eyes. She had accepted her fate and met it, head on without fear.

Menma watched as the girl closed her eyes sensing the attack. He watched as the dog lunged forward, mouth agape intending to bite. He looked to the faces of the other children, the ones watching and it made him sick what he saw there. Glee. Gut wrenching glee at the entertainment before them. It made even him want to vomit, he who cared for no one but himself, until that very moment when he heard the young girl scream at the top of her lungs.

“I’m not going to die like this!”

The expression on her face was unlike anything he had ever seen before. The determination, the hardness of soul, the will in her eyes was unmistakable. She was just like him. It was that day he understood. That day was significant because he had finally found someone worthy of his attention, worthy to be his equal. So he watched her, he followed her. He wanted to learn everything about her.

For that to happen, she needed to survive this attack.

He darted forward, kunai held at a 90 degree angle and sliced through the dog’s throat like butter. Before the girl opened her eyes, before the other children knew what had happened and before the adults, who would have been far too late to help her came running, he was gone, running north toward the old training ground.

“Again.” He stepped into the impact of her fist. She was already getting better at striking. He watched her make a minor adjustment to her stance, the slight shifting of her weight from one leg to the other and…

“Good Sakura.” He smiled at her. Yes, he had chosen wisely. “Fifty more times, then we will take a break.”

Sakura nodded, the focus never leaving her eyes, her face drawn in, determined. His.

The Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen sat next to the current Hokage, the Lord Fourth as Hatake gave his verbal mission report, a slight tightening of the mouth as he watched his student’s former student.

“All targets have been eliminated.” Kakashi reported from his kneeling position before the kage, his fist to the floor, his head bowed.

“How many were there Kakashi?” Minato asked looking up from the mission scroll on the table before him.

“Ten sensei.”

“Scouts?” Minato asked.

“An advance force with two scouts.” Hatake replied. “From Iwa sensei.”

Minato grimaced. It was as he feared. Iwa was making its move against the Leaf again.

“I see.” Minato rubbed his hand over his face. “I had hoped after the last war we would be free of their hatred for a few more years at least. The peace talks we have sent over the last decade seemed to be going well but we can’t ignore what happened today.” Minato turned to Sarutobi.

“So close to our borders too. What could this mean? As you said the peace talks appeared to have been going well.” Sarutobi leaned forward in his seat, his eyes on Kakashi.

“Did you hear any talk while you observed them Kakashi?” He knew the answer, there was a point to be made here.

“I did not bother with reconnaissance sir. I saw an opportunity and I took it. They were dead before they even knew I was there, save one, the last one who shamelessly begged me for mercy.” Hatake almost growled his disgust.

“...and did you give it, mercy?” Sarutobi asked the Anbu Captain.

Hatake didn’t even blink. Why should he answer such a pointless question.

Minato’s eyes hardened at the contempt in Kakashi’s voice. His student had changed over the years and not for the better. He had heard what the other Anbu said of him, he had read the reports where Hatake had killed the opposition in preference to bringing them back to the village for interrogation and now he saw it for himself with his own eyes. The blood lust, the danger, the hopelessness in his former student’s eyes.

He lived to kill now, and nothing more.

Minato met Sarutobi’s gaze and nodded his understanding.

“Thank you Kakashi, you’re dismissed.” Minato waited until Hatake had bowed and left the office before turning to Hiruzen.

“The boy is lost, Minato.” Sarutobi voiced Minato’s own thoughts.

“He has nothing to ground him, to keep him stable, to have hope in or responsibility over.” Minato agreed.

“Perhaps Anbu, is no longer the best place for him. He is an excellent assassin.” Hiruzen lit his pipe with a minor fire jutsu and took a long calming drag before speaking again. “We should remove him from Anbu, before the last of his soul dies out.”

“I agree.” Minato stared down at the written report Kakashi had turned in. “Rin is gone, Obito is dead, his father…”

“He has nothing to hold onto, nothing to make him feel alive except the killing.” Minato whispered, his thoughts wandering to his son. Menma was on the same path, in a few years his son could easily end up just like Kakashi if he didn’t do something soon. The similarities were eerie and worrisome.

“A genin team should do the trick. Put him in charge of the next generation. Give him something to protect again, something more than the village, individuals, something to connect with on a more personal level. Ground him.” The Lord Third pushed his chair back, rose to his feet and stretched his old bones. 

“I assume you have a team in mind already?” Minato knew the man, he wouldn’t have mentioned the idea if he hadn’t already thought it through from start to finish.

“I do, but I don’t think Hatake is quite ready yet, a transition is needed, for both.” Sarutobi scratched his chin. “Four years ought to do it.” He said cryptically before walking out of the room.

“Both?” Minato didn’t understand. Both what and why wait four years? Wasn't that too long to wait to pull Hatake from Anbu? Minato rose to his feet in contemplation, walked out of his office and down the hall toward the side door intending to go to the market for lunch when he felt his son’s chakra signature again and stopped in his tracks. “Four years.” He understood now.

“Who else though, who else is even remotely compatible with Menma, much less tolerable enough to tolerate his quirksome personality?” Minato sighed a heavy sigh. 

He would need to discuss this with his wife, ask her for her opinion. She knew all the mothers and the children in the village. If anyone knew of two compatible team mates for their son’s future genin team, it was Kushina.

Until that time, Kakashi could be one of his personal guards. The only question that remained was how to propose such a boring request to a man that lived for the kill and nothing else.

Sakura lay in the soft grass by the river that ran through the middle of the cavern, with her head in Menma’s lap, as she looked up at the ‘Sky’. “Where does the light come from Menma, do you know? How can the sun shine underground? We’re still underground aren’t we?”

Menma ran his fingers through Sakura’s hair, pulling her elastic loose, spreading her locks over his lap before he answered her.

“We’re still underground. It must be a jutsu. I am not familiar with it. It’s one I’ve never heard of before, nor seen until I discovered this place. My father never mentioned it when he told me about his training here. I’m not sure if he knows about it, or this cavern. Jaraiya kept mostly to the outside and the houses on the walls of the cliff when he trained my father. I don’t know how much of the caves have been explored since their time, from when it was first formed.” He explained.

“There’s only one record of it in the Hokage archives. That’s how I knew to look for it.” Strong fingers massaged her temples, his fingers slowly trailing up and down the sides of her face absently.

Sakura closed her eyes, enjoying his touch. “You’ve read the Hokage archives, but isn’t that, I don’t know, against the law?” She asked him, her eyes still closed, a small smile on her lips.

“Against the law.” Menma murmured, watching her hair fall through his fingers as he continued to stroked her like a house cat. “Who makes the laws Sakura?” He asked her seriously, his voice edged.

“The council of course.” She opened her green eyes to see him sneer.

“What gives them the right to decide what is best for all of us, why do they get to tell us what we can or can’t be punished for? Who gave them that authority, Sakura?” He quizzed her like they were in class, she the student and he the sensei.

“Well…” She paused thinking about her answer for a movement. “The founders I suppose. They founded the village, it was theirs so they made the rules. They left the design for us to follow when they died.” Sakura rose up on her elbows to get a better look at Menma who had ducked his head.

“Lay back down. I want to touch your hair.” He pushed her head back into his lap ignoring her grunt of protest and continued to run his fingers through her hair. “Exactly.”

“Exactly what?” She wasn’t quite sure what he ment. “You mean the founders and how they made the first rules because they made the village? It was their right, wasn’t it?” There was a point he was trying to make to her, she knew, she just wasn’t sure what that point was.

“Whoever holds the power, makes the rules.” Menma leaned over her, his eyes staring into hers. “What happens when one village takes over another? When we infiltrate a village and dispose of its leader, what happens to the villagers, the ones who lived, the ones who remain after their head has been cut off?”

“They fall under our jurisdiction of course. Everyone knows that.” She looked up into his eyes.

“That’s right.” He cupped her small face in between his hands. “They fall under our jurisdiction, our rules, the laws of Konoha because we conquered them, they belong to us after.”

“Oh.” She understood him now. It was as she thought. “Whoever has the power makes the laws.” She nodded her understanding.

“Exactly.” He rubbed his nose against hers, his mood lightening as he did so. “So you see now what I meant? I had the power to break into the archives, I read the archives of the past Hokage’s. I make the law where it pertains to me.” He let go of her face, leaning back onto the weight of his arms.

“The only difference is, you and I are the only ones that know the law has changed, because it only applies to me and you're the only one besides me, that knows about it.” He watched her turn her head in his lap, her big expressive eyes blinked at him once then twice before she smiled.

“Will you be in class tomorrow Menma, or are you skipping again?” She turned in his lap to look out over the rippling surface of the river and waited for his reply.

He was silent for a moment as he thought about her request, for it was a request and they both knew it. She needed to say it. If she wanted something from him, he would make her ask it of him, with her words.

“Do you want me to come to class Sakura?” He knew she wanted him to, but he wanted to hear it. He wanted to hear her say it, that she wanted him to be with her.

“I do Menma. I want you to be with me, all day, everyday from now on.” She hugged the side of his leg, her cheek against his thigh.

“I’ll go then, for you.” Menma sat back up, laid his hand on her head and ran his fingers through her hair.

Sakura closed her eyes again, grateful. Grateful for their new training grounds, grateful for the peace she felt when he was near, grateful for her new friend, the only friend she would ever need for the rest of her life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me...


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tags have been updated, please read for warnings.

“You don’t have to carry me all the time, Menma. I want to learn how to use my chakra like you do. I want to jump up to my window myself.” Sakura squirmed in his grasp as he landed on her window ledge.

“You don’t need to rush things, Sakura. Remember when I warned you about chakra drain? You have to learn how to focus your chakra before you can start jumping through second story windows or running across rooftops, but you will soon.” He set her down over the edge of her window sill and patted her on the head. “Besides, I like carrying you.”

“Hey, quit it.” Sakura slapped his hand away from her head. “I’m not a cat you know.” She giggled at his disappointment, then froze as he grabbed her by the back of the neck and pulled her against his chest.

“You’re mine. I can do whatever I want with you.” He breathed into her hair, just above her left ear.

“Menma, sorry I was just....” She had angered him. She didn’t mean to make him mad, she was just teasing and…

“...and I belong to you.” He stepped back from her, his hand dropping to hers as he led her to her bed. “Get some rest. I’ll be back in a few hours.” He turned before she could ask him why he would be back, it was already getting dark out, maybe he meant in the morning?

“Goodnight.” Sakura stood in front of her window looking out over the rooftops as Menma ran home. “See you in school.”

“SAKURA!” Her mother screamed from the first floor of their home. “Where the hell are you Sakura!”

Sakura spun on her heel and swallowed hard. Crap, she forgot, Menma had come for her right when she woke up and she forgot all about her chores for the day. She would be punished.

Sakura could hear the loud pounding of angry footsteps coming up the stairs. “Kami, I never should have left with Menma, at least not until my chores were done.”, was all that was able to escape her lips as her step-mother flung her door open, grabbed her by the hair and threw her out of her room, down the hall and then down the stairs.

‘Not again.’ Sakura groaned as the side of her hand slammed into the side of the wall and her chin scraped against the sharp wood of the stairs. ‘I’m sorry’, she repeated over and over in her head before it cracked hard against the last step before the foyer of her house. Where was her dad...

“You worthless, lazy, good for nothing little brat.” Mebuki Haruno hissed as she followed her eight year old daughter’s tumbling body down the stairs. “Where were you all day? Lazing around in the library, hanging out in the park? Do you think laundry washes itself? Do you think dishes clean themselves or the mending gets done by magic?” Mebuki kicked the little girl in the stomach making her weeze out in pain, bent over and picked her up with a hard grip on her upper arm, her nails digging into Sakura’s soft skin.

“I feed you, clothe you and this is how you repay me? Laziness? I even allow you to attend school, that worthless ninja academy.” Mebuki snorted. “As if you’ll ever grow up to amount to anything useful.”

Mebuki pushed Sakura into the kitchen. “Do the dishes while I make dinner. After that do the laundry or you won’t get fed.”

“Yes m mom, sorry m mom.” Sakura bowed low and stuttered.

“I’m not your mother, I told you to stop calling me that.” Mebuki glared at the small girl. “Your mother was a whore and she deserved what she got. You’re the same, you’re going to grow up to be a …”

“Mebuki.” Sakura’s father entered the kitchen silently. “I told you to stop that.”

“Sakura.” He turned to his daughter. “Come here.” He reached out to Sakura but she didn’t take his hand. She flinched and started to shuffle backward, her uninjured hand holding her injured one protectively against her chest.

“Sakura. You mother wasn’t a whore. Mebuki is just jealous. She didn’t mean it. Now come here.” Her father commanded.

Mebuki watched with scornful eyes as the little girl crossed the room to stand before her father, her head bowed in submission, her shoulders trembling.

“Where have you been all day Sakura?” His voice was stern but not entirely unkind. Kizashi crouched down in front of his daughter and pushed the hair back from her face. She flinched at his touch.

“Out.” Sakura whispered.

Kizashi looked at his daughter. Normally she would be in tears by now, but her eyes were dry. He took in her injured hand, the bruises that were forming on the side of her face and wondered, had Mebuki gone easier on her this time?

It was his fault, he knew it was his fault the woman treated his daughter with such contempt. His first wife, Sakura’s biological mother, he had married her out of love, but his marriage to Mebuki had been an arranged marriage. He held no love for the woman. He had none to give her. His heart still belonged to his late wife, Sakura’s mother whom Sakura resembled so strongly, that most of the time, he couldn’t bear to look at her.

“What happened to your face Sakura?” Kizashi’s eyes flashed with anger. Mebuki huffed and left the kitchen leaving her husband alone with his daughter. “How did you get this cut?” He asked her more gently.

Sakura knew better than to look her father in the eye. He hated it when she looked him in the eyes. He said the sight of her made him sad because she looked so much like his first wife.

“I fell.” Sakura’s voice was barely above a whisper. “I tripped.”

Kizashi wasn’t a fool. He knew Sakura was lying, had been lying about her injuries for the last two years. Kizashi rose to his feet, set his hand on his daughter’s shoulder and cleared his throat.

“I know this is hard for you Sakura. Mebuki is a hard woman to love but you must try not to upset her. You must try to do as she says. It will make your life easier if you just obey her.” He began his speech, like so many times before, she had heard it a thousand times. She didn’t need to hear it again.

Sakura remained still, her hands in front of her, her head bent. He was a coward. If he loved her, truly loved her he wouldn’t allow that woman to treat her like this. If he loved her, he wouldn’t tell her to call her mom. She hated him. She blamed him. This was his fault.

Kizashi closed his eyes, placed his other hand on her small head. “You look so much like your mother.” His voice cracked.

Sakura looked up abruptly, shocked at the gentleness in his voice. A gentleness she hadn’t heard in a very, very long time. Hope sprung up in her chest like warm sunshine, her eyes glistened as she looked up at her father, her smile waiting, hovering just at the corners of her lips ready to forgive him, ready to start over and love him again. 

“Father, why did you marry that woman, she hates me and…”

Kizashi looked down into Sakura’s green eyes. Her mother’s eyes and choked. Without warning his hand moved, he stepped forward and slapped his daughter hard across the face. Sakura’s head snapped to the side, her small body thrown backward from the impact, she stumbled and fell.

There was no hope here. There was no love to be found within these walls. One tear, that was her last gift to her father, to the memory of what he had once been to her. She promised Menma. She wouldn’t cry without good reason. One tear, that was the equivalent for all the love she had left in her heart for the man who had been her father.

Sakura sniffed, rubbed her nose on her sleeve and looked just to the left of the man’s head, at the wall, her eyes blank and void of emotion.

Broken.

“Don’t look at me.” Her father cried out as he backed away from her. “I told you never to look at me with those cursed eyes.”

Afraid. He was afraid of her she realized. Laughter bubbled up from her lips, from her soul, from the darkness. Her spit mixed with blood as she cackled and weezed. “Cursed. I am cursed.”

Kizashi’s eyes went wide as he watched his little girl writhe and turn over on the floor. The eerie echo of her unhinged laughter reverberating through his head. Just like her mother’s.

By the time Sakura had composed herself, by the time she had gotten back up onto her feet...he was gone. Slowly she willed herself to move to the counter and one by one she did the dishes until they were all cleaned and set to dry on the bamboo drying rack.

The house was silent as she made her way back upstairs. There would be no dinner for her that night she knew. There would be no breakfast for her in the morning either because of what had happened tonight. She didn’t care about the laundry. She was too tired to be hungry.

It had been a long day training at the old training caves with Menma. A long, wonderful, beautiful day. Sakura smiled, winced immediately as pain struck her sharp and quick in the corner of her mouth. She brought the back of her hand up to her face and winced again.

“Oh.” She looked down at her hand. “That’s where the blood was from.” Her voice was dull as she crawled into her bed and pulled her tattered ratty covers up and over her head. The house was empty, she was alone.

“Menma.” Sakura called out to her friend before she fell asleep.

Two hours later, Menma slid the window back to Sakura’s room and stepped inside, his arms full. Moving soundlessly over to her bed he laid out the thick quilt, his quilt off of his own bed and covered her so she would be nice and warm.

It was early spring, warm enough in the day but still cold at night and he didn’t think her threadbare blanket was enough to keep her warm. He had promised to take care of her and he would, was.

He had planned to come back sooner but his father had stopped him on the way out of the house, asking him annoying question after annoying question. It had taken him no little amount of small talk to rid himself of the nuisance.

Tucking the edges in and around his friend Menma noticed a shadowed bruising along the edge of her palm that ran up to her pinky finger stopping just before the knuckle. He leaned forward over his friend and pulled her thin cover down to look at her face. Menma stumbled backward in shock that was quickly replaced by anger.

One side of Sakura’s little face was swollen and red with fresh scratches. There was a small cut in the corner of her mouth. He could see where the blood had dried and flaked off on her chin. Pulling the covers off of her body completely he found bruises along her forearm and finger prints where someone had gripped her upper arm too hard, bruising her delicate skin.

He was horrified. He never would have guessed her home life would be this bad. He thought her parents were like his, just annoying, nosey and interfering. Maybe that they didn’t understand her. Menma never thought they hurt her. If he had he would have, he would have...

Menma’s chakra snapped and pulsed around him. Someone had hurt her, which one was it, her mother or her father?. Someone had hurt his friend and they would pay for it. How could this have happened, he hadn’t been gone that long, he left her in her home and was gone for less than two hours. He never should have left her. He should have left her in the training caves, he should have....

His mind was racing. His skin began to bubble with the reddish black chakra of the nine tails. His eyes began to glow and his teeth sharpened behind his lips.

‘Easy boy. She’s okay, just a little scraped up. You have to calm down, you have to think this through.’ Black Kurama began to pace back and forth in his head.

‘This is my fault. I never should have left her alone.’ Menma gripped his head before the nine tails in his mind, falling to his knees.

‘How could you have known what her home life was like? No one knew. She didn’t tell you. You didn’t know.’ Kurma tried to reason with the boy. ‘She kept her promise, look at her face. It is scratched and bruised but her eyes are dry.’

Menma looked down at Sakura’s face. The beast was right. “Sakura.” Menma cupped her uninjured cheek. “Wake up Sakura.”

Minato’s head snapped up in alarm as two Anbu dropped down into his living room.

“Hokage Sama.” One of them began.

“I already know.” Minato flashed from his home to the civilian district. His son’s chakra had erupted out of nowhere. As quickly as it had flared it had been suppressed to a dull pulse of agitation. Something had happened.

“Menma.” The Fourth Hokage stood outside of a normal looking three story home. What was his son doing here and what had caused him to lose control of his chakra.

The same two Anbu from earlier dropped down beside their Hokage.

“The Haruno’s house?” The first Anbu said, his surprise clear in his tone. He was confused. “They are civilians, what would the nine tails, I mean, your son want with a civilian family?”

“I think I might know. Stay here.” The Fourth Hokage commanded. Minato flashed into the home uninvited. There were no traps, no genjutsu or seals of any kind. As his Anbu said, this was a civilian home and he had a feeling this would be a private matter. The less witnesses the better.

Menma felt him before he had even entered the room. Sakura had just begun to stir in her bed as his father flashed into existence beside him.

“Menma, what’s going on here? What has happened, are you hurt or, is this, is this uh.” Minato looked around, he could tell without looking though no one was home but them, and the little pink haired girl in the bed before them. “Is that your quilt?” He asked his son, pointing to the little girl’s bed recognizing the quilt he had picked out for his son last year.

“Get out. You have no business being here.” Menma moved to sit on the bed beside Sakura trying to cover her up in the presence of his father. “Go away.”

“Are those bruises? Menma did you, did you hurt her?” Minato bit the inside of his mouth too late to keep himself from speaking. He hadn’t meant to say it like that. He shouldn’t have said anything.

“I did not!” Menma’s chakra flared again out of control singing the ratty pillow on Sakura’s bed. “Her parents did this!” He thrust his hand out at Sakura as the two Anbu entered the room.

Sakura lifted her hand up toward Menma, her eyes still filled with sleep as she turned her head to look at him.

“Get out!” Menma exploded, his chakra snapping around him pushing the two Anbu forcefully from the room, out the window. They had no right to be there, they had no right to look at her.

“Menma, I didn’t mean. I’m sorry. Let me help you. You said her parent’s did this to her. Did you see it? Were you here when it happened?” Minato feared for the worst. Menma clearly cared a great deal about this little girl, if he had witnessed her parents hurting her then…

“I found her like this.” Sakura began to move in her bed, squirming to get out from under the covers. Her eyes opened. 

“Menma, you’re here thank kami.” She pushed herself up in her bed leaning forward to hug her friend but stopped, noticing the other person in her room for the first time.

“Menma...oh my gosh Lord Fourth!” Sakura immediately bowed her head to the Hokage, her shoulders shaking. Was she in trouble? Had her father turned her in for, for, well she had no idea what he could possibly turn her in for but she knew that the Lord Fourth was in her bedroom and...

Minato’s eyes darted from the girl to his son back and forth, then back again. He wasn’t sure what had happened, but he could see the bruises on her arms now, the cut in the corner of her mouth and the puffiness along her jaw. His mouth tightened at the thought of anyone hurting such a small girl, much less her parents.

Yes, children used to be sent to war. His own genin team had been far too young when they were pushed to the front lines, sent out on their first mission, but this was a time of peace. This little girl didn’t receive her injuries in battle, no, this was domestic.

Minato sat down on the corner of Sakura’s bed ignoring his son’s snapping chakra and took one of her hands into his. “Tell me what happened and I will help you.” He said simply.

Menma glared at his father. “She doesn’t need your help. She has me.”

Sakura looked up into the gentle eyes of the Fourth Hokage, Menma’s eyes and flashed him a hesitant smile.

Menma grabbed Sakura by the shoulders and pulled her away from his father. “If you want to help fine but you’re not allowed to touch her.”

Minato let Sakura’s little hand slip through his fingers with a nod. He had never seen his son so possessive over anything, or anyone before. It was disturbing. He would need to proceed with caution until he figured out the full extent of his son’s relationship with this girl.

Sakura tried to smile at Menma but stopped when the corner of her mouth cracked open again and blood dripped down her chin. Menma wiped her chin with the back of his own hand and pulled her closer to his chest hugging her to himself. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here. What happened, tell me Sakura, tell me what happened.”

“I didn’t cry Menma, just as I promised. I didn’t cry.” She began to cry, tears spilling over her tightly pressed eyes.

Menma buried his face in her hair and shook with rage. He would kill them for this.

“I’m here.” He whispered to her, for only her to hear. “I’ll make this right. I promise.”

“I…” Sakura looked shyly at the Hokage, her tears fading from her eyes. “I trust you Menma.”

Menma nodded before pulling his head back from her hair. They sat side by side, his arms still around his friend as they both looked at his father.

“Where are your parents Sakura?” Minato asked gently.

“Not home.” She replied quietly. Her fingers wrapped with Menma’s in her lap.

“Were they home when you returned from spending the day out with my son?” The Hokage continued to question the girl gently.

Menma wasn’t surprised his father knew about Sakura, he had expected it, but Sakura stiffened in his embrace and he felt he should say something, in her defense. “We’re friends. You told me that friends were important, so I got one.”

Minato nodded, his attention returning to Sakura. “Were they home when you got home earlier Sakura? Do you know where they are now?” Minato kept his voice soft. 

He could see the girl was wary of him, he could see she had been warned not to tell anyone what had happened either this time or from another time before. He would need to be careful, handle this correctly. Unfortunately his son’s protective aura wasn’t helping.

“They were home when I got home, I don’t know where they are now.” Sakura spoke the truth. He would get nothing out of her.

“I see.” Minato considered his options. He would need to make a decision and quickly. They couldn’t sit here all night.

With a pulse of his chakra one of his Anbu reappeared. “Hokage sama.”

Menma growled low in his throat but Minato ignored his son.

“Bring me Inoichi Yamanaka.” The Lord Fourth requested.

“Yes sir.” The Anbu disappeared through Sakura’s window.

“We both know what the Yamanaka will find, then what?” Menma demanded of his father.

“What happens next depends on what we find Menma, the extent of what we find. Perhaps it’s best if you wait downstairs or outside when Inoichi san pulls her memories from her mind.” Minato began but was cut off by his son’s refusal.

“I’ll stay.” Menma continued to hold Sakura tightly.

“Menma, if we find what I think we will find, she will be removed from this house and placed in a safe house. There’s nothing to worry about.” He tried to calm his agitated son down. He had never seen Menma like this before. The boy never cared about anything.

“You mean Root.” Menma bit out at his father.

“How do you know about…” Minato was caught off guard. How did Menma know about Root?

Before Menma could respond the Anbu had returned with Inoichi Yamanaka.

“Hokage sama.” Inoichi bowed to his Hokage, his eyes moving from Menma to the little girl on the bed with curiosity.

“Thank you for coming, Inoichi. I’m sorry for the hour but could you please look into little Sakura’s head here?” Minato waved to Sakura. “She has just experienced something rather traumatic and I need to know exactly what happened.”

“Where are her parents?” Inoichi asked, understanding darkening his eyes as they flickered across the bruises on her arms.

“Not here, not yet.” Menma growled. “Do it.”

“Menma, silence.” The Lord Fourth reprimanded his son.

“I’ll need to place my hand on her forehead.” Inoichi told Menma stepping forward.

“What are you going to do to me?” Sakura’s voice quivered, making Menma growl out a warning to the blonde Yamanaka.

“I won’t hurt you. I just want to look into your memories, your most recent memories. I promise it won’t hurt a bit.” Inoichi smiled warmly at Sakura.

“O okay.” Sakura started to pull away from Menma but couldn’t as he continued to hold her in place. “It’s okay Menma. If he does it this way, I won’t be breaking my word to my father, I won’t be telling them.”

“If he does this he will see.” Menma held her with his eyes. “Everything.”

“Oh.” She understood now. She smiled a half smile so she wouldn’t split her lip again. “Then I will only let him see what I want him to see.”

Minato raised his brows at his son and his friend. What were they talking about, something secret that was clear, but what? 

“We’ve only started training Sakura, you don’t have control over your chakra like that yet, he’s a Yamanaka, Sakura you know that you can’t…” Sakura cut him off.

“Trust me, like I trust you.” Sakura turned to Inoichi, bowing politely from the waist. “I’m ready Yamanaka san.”

With a nod from The Fourth Hokage, Inoichi placed his palm on Sakura’s little forehead and gasped in pain.


	7. Chapter 7

Flashes of light struck Inoichi in the chest as he entered the little girl’s mind, a roaring louder than any wind jutsu drowned out his surroundings. With his hand pressed to Sakura’s head, he slumped over slightly, raising his other hand to cover his chest, his heart.

“Inoichi, what is it?” Minato asked anxiously. He had never seen this happen during an interrogation before.

“Resistance Hokage sama, she’s pulling my mind astray, I didn’t think...she’s so young…” He began to perspire, sweat dripped down his temples. “Her control, her presence is unbearably strong.”

Menma smirked as he watched the Yamanaka Clan head struggle. He had learned many things about his new friend at the training caves earlier that day. One thing he had learned about her, was that she had excellent chakra control. He needn’t have been concerned about her ability to control her mind even under the scrutiny of a Yamanaka. He wouldn’t underestimate her again.

‘Oh, so that’s why you picked her’, Kurama hummed from Menma’s inner sanctuary as he watched the Yamanaka and their new friend with interest.

Menma took the ratty cloth tissue from his pocket and dabbed at the corner of Sakura’s mouth, throwing it onto her desk after he had cleaned her face up a bit. The corner of her mouth was bleeding again.

Inoichi tried to focus his chakra into a point. If she wouldn’t allow him to see the whole picture, perhaps he could...everything focused at once. He saw Sakura’s bedroom door open, he watched Mebuki Haruno drag her out of the room, throw her down the stairs, kick her in the stomach, then pull her to her feet by her upper arm and drag the little girl into the kitchen.

His vision went fuzzy again, then refocused into the shadowy form of a woman who slapped Sakura hard across the face, when Sakura fell to the floor he watched as the shadow woman kicked her twice before stomping out of the room.

Inoichi tried to calm himself, focused on his breathing. The room cleared, the haze was gone and he found himself looking up into the eyes of a horrified Kizashi Haruno.

“How did you get this cut?” Inoichi heard Kizashi ask his daughter, his voice gentle.

Sakura didn’t answer.

“You look so much like your mother Sakura.” The man’s eyes were soft as he looked down at his daughter with love. “I’m so sorry you have to keep going through this.” Kizashi’s voice was strained, choked almost as if the man wasn’t himself. The air around them wavered, then sharpened once more as Inoichi pushed more and more chakra into his palm. Something wasn’t right. Was this a lie? How could she...she was too young, too inexperienced to fool him. Inoichi shook his head, she was only a kid.

“I love you Sakura. I love you so much. Please bear it, for the family.” Kizashi pleaded with the little girl.

Inoichi’s head began to throb, there was a pressure building up behind his eyes, something was pushing him out. She wanted him to leave. There was no more for him to see there. Sakura had shown him all that she wanted him to see.

The light faded around them. She continued to push him, releasing herself from his kekkei genkai. “Incredible chakra control.” Inoichi blinked at the little pink haired girl in amazement and curiosity.

Inoichi’s hand fell from Sakura’s forehead, his eyes sad and searching, she’d really had it rough poor kid. “I’m so sorry Sakura. It looks like you’ve been through a lot tonight and many other nights before this one.” The Yamanaka shared a meaningful look with the Hokage.

“I see.” Minato nodded. “The father?”

“The mother.” Inoichi corrected the Hokage. “Kizashi Haruno does not appear to be the uh, aggressor.”

“Step-Mother.” Sakura corrected them both reaching out once more for Menma’s hand.

“Ah.” Minato rubbed his chin. “...and your father Sakura, is he, do you um…”

“My father is a good man.” She whispered. It was a lie. Sakura raised her head and looked the Hokage in the eye. “He’s just weak.” That, was the truth.

Menma felt her squeeze his hand hard. He understood. Let her handle this. He looked from his father to Sakura. His father wasn’t a fool, he knew the girl wasn’t telling the complete truth but with the word of the Yamanaka to convince him, his father nodded slowly.

“I’ll need to speak with your father, there are actions that need to be taken against your step-mother.” Minato could feel the little girl’s energy ripple out from her body. “Do you know where your father is Sakura? I have some questions I would like to ask him, he isn’t in any trouble but he will have answers to things you may not.”

“I don’t know where he is. I would tell you if I did.” She swallowed. What would he do, what would her father do? She hadn’t told them anything. She had manipulated her memories into falsehoods, misleading the Yamanaka so he wouldn’t get into trouble.

“Of course.” Minato turned to Inoichi. “Please bring me Hatake Kakashi.”

Menma opened his mouth, then shut it. What was it to him if his father sent a demon wolf to find Sakura’s parents? It was what they deserved. He knew his father wouldn’t go, knew he wouldn’t let him go look for them. Menma knew he had already given too much away tonight. He was never emotional, never let things get to him, never threw up a fuss. 

Menma caught Sakura’s eye and smiled a reassuring smile at her. She was worth it.

Minato watched his son out of the corner of his eye. There was more to his friendship with the Haruno girl than he could see on the surface, they were close, very close and Minato knew that this is what his son had been doing for the last three weeks, this girl was what had brought about the change in his son. He only hoped it was a change for the good and not…

“Hokage sama.” Hatake Kakashi appeared before the Hokage in a puff of smoke, his head bowed, his fist to the floor in front of him. “You called for me?”

“Yes Kakashi, sorry about the hour but I have a last minute mission for you. I need you to find and bring to me Kizashi Haruno and his wife Mebuki Haruno.” Minato glanced at Sakura’s bruised face. “As quickly as you can.”

“Yes Hokage sama.” Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke. Only after he had gone did Minato notice that the cloth tissue that had been resting on the corner of the girl’s desk, was also missing.

Turning back to Inoichi, Minato thanked him for coming, and told him to expect another summons once the Haruno’s were located. As he waved Inoichi out of the bedroom window, he purposefully ignored the stifled gasp from the girl, feinting ignorance as his eyes searched the night sky thinking over his next move.

Sakura tugged soundlessly on Menma’s sleeve and rolled her eyes to his father. Menma understood. If Inoichi used his kekkei genkai and exposed her lie, her false memory, what then? What would they do?

“Don’t worry Sakura.” Menma whispered to her. “I told you I would take care of you. You have nothing to worry about.”

Minato listened with conflicting emotions as his son comforted the girl behind him. Of course he knew the girl was lying, but if they found out both of her parents were abusing her then...he sighed.

“I’m not sure how long it will be before Hatake san locates your parents Sakura. If they aren’t together it might take some time. It’s late. Do you have a friend you can spend the night with or a relative here in Konoha that could watch over you until your parents are located?” He asked her.

Sakura shook her head. “I don’t have any relatives here other than my parents and my only friend is um, Menma.”

“Ah.” Minato rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, that’s why his son had chosen her. “Well, I suppose uh.”

“I will stay here with her tonight.” Menma made the decision for his father.

“Menma.” The Fourth Hokage began hesitantly. “That’s not appropriate and I think your mother would…”

“I’m not leaving her alone.” Menma said in his usual calm indifferent tone. “Either I stay here or she comes home with me.”

Minato opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by his son yet again.

“Or we both leave Konoha tonight together.” Menma pulled Sakura closer to himself hugging her from the side as he stared at his father challenging him to call his bluff. His father was an observant man, no doubt he had already come to the correct conclusion, Sakura belonged to him and separating them wasn’t an option.

“Sakura can come home with us tonight then. Only for tonight and you are going to sleep in separate beds.” Minato finally broke down and acknowledged his son's claim on the girl.

‘No, we aren’t.’ Menma said to himself as he nodded to his father.

“...but my dad, he’ll be furious.” Sakura began. She had heard of Kakashi Hatake, the man would find her father and when he did, she shivered at the thought. 

Their family business was their own, that’s what her father had told her the day he married Mebuki. Trade, her father had told her as he patted her head in what he thought was reassurance. He was marrying Mebuki to open the trade routes between Oto and Konoha merchants.

Sakura however, didn’t understand any of that, nor did she care. The only thing she understood was that her mother was dead, not yet cold in her grave and her father was marrying a woman of substance for her dowry and connections, not out of love. Sakura had seen a marriage built on love and knew that this marriage, her father’s second marriage, was void of that essential emotion.

From the beginning of their marriage, Sakura had never liked Mebuki and Mebuki, had never liked Sakura. Sakura watched the indecision in Minato’s eyes as he looked at her. Pity, he pitied her. She straightened her back and stuck out her chin. She didn’t want his pity, she didn’t need his pity. Menma shifted in his seat beside his friend, his eyes meeting his fathers.

Minato nodded to his son and Menma nodded to his father.

“Alright then.” Minato set his eyes back on the girl.

“I’ll let him know where you are so he won’t worry.” Minato tried his best to smile kindly at the girl. “Come, gather your things for the night and for school tomorrow. I’ll take both of you home and introduce you to my wife, Kushina.”

Sakura nodded, pulling away from Menma to pack an overnight bag. Minato watched her pull a shirt and a pair of pants from her shelf and shove them in a bag, she left the room to come back with a toothbrush, then went back to stand beside Menma who had rolled his quilt up in her absence, tucking her slightly singed pillow into the middle.

“Do you have everything you need?” Minato looked around the room. She hadn’t packed very much.

“Yes.” Sakura’s head was bowed, she knew what he was thinking. “I don’t need a lot. I promise not to be any trouble.”

“You’re not any trouble at all, Sakura. Kushina will be thrilled to have you spend the night with us. She always said she wished we had a little girl after we had Menma.” Minato smiled a genuine smile at Sakura, his eyes shining like the sun.

Warmth, that’s what is was that was calming her nerves. The Fourth Hokage was warm, like the sun.

“Thank you.” Her voice trembled. So that was what it was like to have parents who loved you. She looked at Menma. He was so lucky to have them, did he even know how lucky he was?


	8. Chapter 8

Kushina wiped the tears from her eyes, grabbed Sakura into a back breaking hug and sobbed into the little girl's hair, blubbering loudly. “You poor little pumpkin! We’ll take care of you, do you want some cookies?”

“So, she’ll be staying here tonight Kushina. I have to go back to the office for a little bit, you don’t mind do you?” Minato’s eyes softened to mush as he watched his wife dote over the little girl, Sakura’s pink hair sticking out at odd angles trapped behind Kushina’s vibrant red.

Like he had told Sakura earlier, they had tried for several years after Menma was born without any luck to have another child. Minato was pleased to see Kushina so happy, even if it was only for one night. Menma stood to the side, just a finger’s touch away from his friend and Minato thought perhaps there would be more nights like this in the near future if the two children were as close as they appeared to be.

“Not at all, not at all!” Kushina grabbed Sakura’s hand and pulled her into the kitchen, set her at the table and began rummaging around in the pantry. “I’ll make some cookies. You can have one each tonight before bed and I’ll pack the rest in your lunches for school tomorrow. You will be going to school tomorrow with Sakura won’t you Menma?”

Menma shrugged, taking a seat beside Sakura at their western style dinner table.

“I thought so.” Kushina gave her husband a knowing look. “I have this, you go take care of whatever you need to take care of Minato. We’ll be here when you get home.” Kushina dropped the flour and the sugar down on the kitchen counter, crossed the room and kissed her husband goodbye.

Sakura watched under half closed eyes at the foreign display of affection before her. A family who loved one another, what a novel idea. She was six when her mother had died. She didn’t remember her very well. When she was home she spent most of her time with her father, pushing Sakura off on the old neighbor next door.

Her father loved her mother but her mother, the only thing she remembered of the woman was that she loved herself above all others. This, Sakura looked up to watch Minato hug Kushina, a loving smile on his face, was something more, something real and precious.

A heavy hand fell onto Sakura’s head. She tilted her head up, blinking in surprise, she must have gotten lost in her thoughts.

“Everything will be okay Sakura. Stay here with Kushina and Menma. Have a cookie and get some sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.” Minato gave her another heartwarming smile before likewise patting his son on the head and walking out the door.

“Okay!” Kushina clapped her hands together smiling cheerfully at her son and his new friend. “Menma why don’t you take Sakura upstairs to your room and show her where the bathroom is while I get these cookies started hum?”

“Right.” Menma pushed his chair back from the table and picked up Sakura’s overnight bag leading the way to the stairs at the other end of the house.

Sakura followed Menma up the stairs and to the door of his room hesitating in the doorway. Was this okay, his father said they would be sleeping in separate beds but his mom didn’t seem to mind so…

“What’s wrong?” Menma set her bag on the end of his bed looking over his shoulder at her curiously.

“Um nothing, just your dad said uh…” She pleated the loose fabric of her dress in between her fingers and withered her bottom lip with her teeth. “...your dad said we weren't allowed to sleep together but your mom didn’t seem to mind.”

“My dad is a bit old fashioned. My mom is a realist. She knew she wouldn’t be able to keep me from your bed tonight so she isn’t going to pretend to try. We’re kids, it’s not like we’re teenagers or anything.” Not that it would matter, he told Kurama who rolled his eyes at the boy. He didn’t care how old they were, he wasn’t going to let Sakura sleep alone tonight. He wasn’t going to leave her side again, not after what happened to her earlier.

“Oh, well I guess if it’s okay. I didn’t really want to sleep alone tonight but I’m used to it so it would have been okay.” She looked around his room. It was plain. Sparse but not empty. Everything was organized, everything had its place. Methodically situated. Sakura smiled, it suited him.

“You’re not alone anymore. You have me.” Menma patted the bed. “Come here.”

Sakura sat down on Menma’s bed, her hands in her lap and waited. She could feel every beat of her heart through the bruises on the side of her cheek, the burning in the cuts of her hand. There was a heated throbbing in the back of her neck. She was sore and pained all over her body and she wanted to cry but she wouldn’t, because she promised Menma she wouldn’t cry without a good reason.

Green eyes passed around Menma’s room again taking in his desk, his bed, the window on the far wall, the door that led downstairs where his mother could be heard making cookies. She wanted to cry, not because she was in pain but because this was too much. She thought her friend was like her but he wasn’t. He had a family, a loving family and he…

“Menma.” Sakura rose to her feet, picked up her bag and walked toward the door. “I should go.”

“Sakura. What are you doing?” Menma stood up alarmed. Was she leaving? Was she leaving him? Did he do something wrong?

“I don’t belong here.” She turned to walk out the door but he grabbed her uninjured hand and pulled her back.

“You do. You belong with me.” He turned her around to face him, took her bag from her unresisting hand and put it back on the end of his bed. 

“Don’t you want to be here with me?” He didn’t understand. Why wasn’t she as happy as he was that she was here, that they were in his room together. He was going to go to school for her tomorrow just so they could spend as much time with each other as possible. Why would she want to leave?

“When we met in the park I thought...I thought you were like me, that you didn’t have anyone and needed a friend.” Her head hung low against her chest. “That we were both outcasts in a way and that’s why we fit so well together.”

“I chose you as my friend because you needed me. You still need me.” He watched her face contort in anger.

“Need you.” Her eyes flashed. “Maybe, but you don’t need me, you have everything.” She waved her hand around his well furnished room.

“Sakura.” He began but she cut him off, her little fists digging into the flesh of her thighs where she gripped her dress trying to keep her tears back.

“You have a father who respects your decisions, you’re eight years old for kami’s sake and he respects you, the Hokage! Your mother bakes cookies! Knows you, knows you would want to be as close to me tonight as possible and didn’t fight you on taking me to your room because she knew you would argue with her on it, that you would sneak into my bed or sneak me into yours later when she wasn’t looking and you...you act like it doesn’t matter, like it isn’t spectacular or something!”

Her voice cracked. “I would give anything to see my father look at my mother the way your father looked at your mother tonight! I would give anything to have my mom make me cookies! You have everything Menma and you act like, like you hate it!” Little beads of blood began to pool from where her nails were cutting into the soft skin of her thighs.

“You’re right.” Menma watched her face twist from anger and contempt to surprise then suspicion at his words. “You’re right Sakura, I don’t care. I don’t hate it. It simply doesn’t hold any value to me.”

“...but.” Sakura didn’t understand. He had everything in his family that she ever wanted and was denied, how could he not care? It sounded insane to her.

“You wish for what you never had. I’m indifferent to the things I have because I have always had them, suffocated under them. Maybe if I grew up like you did it would have been different, but I didn’t did I? Can you blame me for that anymore than I can blame you for your circumstances or your desires?”

“No but…” 

“Then stop.” He lifted her hands from her legs and kissed one then the other. “Accept that this is how things are, and let me take care of you.” Menma set her hands back in her lap, picked her bag up and started sorting through her things.

“Come.” He had her toothbrush in his hand and walked out the door of his room without looking back. With a small huffing sigh of defeat, she followed him.

“This is the bathroom.” He said unnecessarily flipping on the bathroom light. “Sit there.” He pointed to the bath bench.

Sakura sat down on the bench. Menma smiled, she was so compliant, a small outburst of spirit, a little heated reasoning and she folded. She was his and she knew it, deep, deep down. Menma turned the taps to the traditional bath and filled the wash bucket.

“I’m going to clean you up a bit. Just sit still and relax. I’ll be gentle I promise.” He pulled a soft cloth from the nearby shelf dipping it into the warm water.

Sakura watched him squeeze a drop of soap onto the cloth and lather it swiftly. “I’m sorry this happened to you Sakura.” He touched the warm cloth to her face and she closed her eyes. “This will never happen to you again, I promise you. Your mother will never hurt you again.”

“My father will take care of everything. Hatake will find your parents.” He continued to run the soft cloth over her face, down her chin and around her neck. “They will be punished.” 

Sakura opened her eyes to see his blue eyes an inch away from her own. “I changed my memories.”

“I know.” He wrung the cloth out in the wash bucket and began wiping down her arms one at a time. “So does my father.”

“Yeah.” She assumed as much.

“You know you can’t go back there don’t you?” He held his breath. He knew she didn’t want to go back there but she didn’t think she had anywhere else to go. If she did maybe…

“Where else can I go Menma, I have no relatives that live nearby. I have you, but only for tonight. It’s not like your parents are going to adopt me or something.” She laughed at the very thought.

“You might be surprised.” Menma murmured quietly under his breath, dropping the cloth into the bucket and setting it aside. “Come on, the cookies should be done by now.”

Minato sat behind his desk in the Hokage tower looking out the window south, toward his house. The injuries the small girl had sustained were minimal. He, of course, had seen far worse but Sakura was only eight and the injuries that colored her body weren’t from training, or from playing with her friends. They were from her parents, people she should be able to trust. People who were supposed to love and protect her.

Kushina’s eyes had grown larger and larger while he recanted the reason Sakura would be joining them that night. He could almost see the blood boiling under his wife’s skin when she looked at the fully formed bruises and swelling that decorated the pale flesh of the little girl and then the softness in her eyes when Sakura thanked her for letting her stay the night.

He hadn’t been exaggerating when he told Sakura he and his wife had wanted another baby, and had wanted a daughter. Kushina was a caretaker at heart, a lover and a mother. Between his seemingly over protective son and Kushina he hoped the girl would have a peaceful night.

“Hokage sama.” Kakashi Hatake interrupted his domestic thoughts with a puff of smoke and a loud screeching of female protest as he appeared before him, with his captives.

“I've brought you Haruno and his wife as requested.” Kakashi bowed low to his Hokage. “I found them fleeing Konoha, toward Oto.”

“Oto.” Minato fixed Kizashi Haruno with a hard stare. “Why, may I ask, were you fleeing to Oto Haruno san?”

Kakashi bent over at the waist and ripped the tape that covered Kizashi’s mouth off without mercy.

“Argh!” Kizashi glared at Hatake and the Hokage equally. “My wife, after a family disagreement, voiced her desire to go home to Oto. She has family there. I was simply escorting her halfway there to ensure her safety.”

“Halfway.” Minato’s icy gaze slid to Mebuki Haruno who had the good sense to remain kneeling, her hands tied behind her back, her mouth likewise taped shut. “No doubt you pursued her out of marital obligation?” 

“She is my wife.” Haruno replied without hesitating.

“What of your injured daughter you left behind? Did you not care about her enough to stay with her, to see that she was looked after while you were escorting your wife back to her family? Does your marital obligation supersede your parental obligation to your daughter?” Minato inquired, his hands on his desk before him, flat against the wood grain.

“Sakura? She’s at home, she’s in bed, fine. She’s fine.” Kizashi, to his credit, didn't appear nervous in the slightest as he lied through his teeth to the Hokage.

“She is not ‘fine’ as you put it.” Inoichi Yamanaka surprised everyone but the Fourth Hokage and Hatake as he entered the room. “Young Sakura has bruises and cuts all over her body from your abuse.” He pointed his finger hotly at the two parents kneeling before the Hokage. “I’ve seen them as well as how she received them.”

Minato rose from his seat, stepped around his desk and stood rigidly before the two Harunos. “You will stand trial. Your daughter’s medical records will be called in as evidence. I doubt this is the first time she has needed medical attention from your ‘care’ but it will be the last. You are both under house arrest until your trial which will be in two days time. Hatake will escort you home.”

“Yes Hokage sama.” Hatake slapped the tape back over Kizashi’s mouth before he could protest.

“Tell Lord Danzo to have one of his men stand watch over the Harunos until their trial. I don’t want them, wandering away to Oto.” Minato sat back down behind his chair dismissing the Harunos.

Kizashi’s muffled noises however, had Minato waving his hand once more to Kakashi, who ripped the tape from the Kizashi’s mouth again.

“Sakura, what will, I mean she is still at home isn’t she?” He asked.

Minato narrowed his blue eyes at the man. “No, she is at home with my wife and my son. We will look after her until justice may be reached.”

“You?” Shock dulled Kizashi Haruno’s words. He sputtered. “You did this, on purpose!”

Three things happened at once.

Minato side stepped Kizashi’s poor attempted punch to his chin, Hatake picked Kizashi up off of his feet with one arm and slammed him down against the floor of the Hokage’s office and two more Anbu leapt through the window grabbing the man and his wife rushing them up against the wall on the other side of the room pinning them in submission.

“Be still.” Minato, the Fourth Hokage gave Kizashi Haruno a contemplative look. “Why would I ‘do this on purpose’ as you say? What am I doing on purpose?”

“The girl, you want the girl, you knew who her mother was, you know and that’s why, you want her, you want her bloodline for your damned son!” Kizashi shot the accusation out of his mouth like fire. “You can’t have her! I have a marriage set up for her in Suna, a legally binding marriage since her conception! Your foul, disgusting son can’t have my little girl!”

Minato looked at the man with pity. A wild accusation. A desperate attempt. “You are mistaken. My son and your daughter are friends, he noticed the bruises and called me to your home this evening with his chakra. At my request, with your daughter’s best interest in mind, I had Yamanaka san look into her mind. What he found, was condemning. For both of you.”

“I did not know your wife. I do not know what you are referring to. As Hokage it is my responsibility to look after the citizens of Konoha, shinobi and civilians alike, big or small. Hatake, please see that they get home unmolested but accounted for.” Minato turned his back on Sakura’s parents, unable to stomach their faces any longer.

“I will contact Lord Danzo.” Inoichi bowed out of the room.

Only when the door to his office shut did Minato relax his shoulders.

“It seems there is more to little Sakura than I originally thought.” His blue eyes turned once again in the direction of his home. There was paperwork that needed to be filled out, people that must be contacted but for now...Minato stretched his arms up over his head and jumped out the window. He wanted to go home.

There were a few things he and Kushina needed to discuss.


	9. Chapter 9

Kushina set a cookie down in front of Sakura with a smile. Menma grabbed his own cookie from the tray on the counter, his eyes watching his mother watch his friend. His mother and he didn’t always see eye to eye, in fact they rarely agreed on anything at all, but it seemed they both agreed that Sakura was special and deserved a bit of special attention.

“So, you wanna talk about it?” Kushina sat down next to Sakura at the kitchen table biting into one of the three dozen cookies she had baked in the time it had taken for Menma to show Sakura his room and wipe away her humiliation. “You know, about what happened with your parents tonight?” Kushina smiled kindly at the little girl, her son’s first and only friend.

“Mom.” Menma sat down across from Sakura and his mom at the table pouring himself a glass of milk from the jug in the middle. “Don’t pester her.” He had expected this, but he hoped his mom would have at least let Sakura finish her cookie before her smothering tendencies took over.

Kushina ignored her son. Sakura needed to know that Menma wasn’t her only means of emotional support. “Sometimes it helps to talk about it, get it off your chest you know, out in the open.” It didn’t matter if the girl talked about what had happened to her that night, what mattered was that Sakura knew she could talk about it if she wanted to, whenever she wanted to and that there were people who would listen to her without judging her for it.

“You wouldn’t understand.” Sakura chewed her cookie quietly. “It’s not that big of a deal.”

“Oh?” Kushina picked up Sakura’s injured hand, turned it over and watched Sakura wince at the contact. “Seems like a big deal to me kid.” Kushina understood her reluctance to speak, she had been the same when she was Sakura’s age and like Sakura had Menma, Kushina had Minato. Kushina smiled, maybe their son was more like them than they thought.

Blue eyes, like Menma’s, like his father’s bore into Sakura’s green.

“He didn’t mean for it to happen. He didn’t know she would hate me so much. Resent me so much for looking like my mother, my biological mother.” Sakura sighed. “Dad, he did it for me. Married Mebuki. She had ties to Suna and well, Dad wanted to make sure I was taken care of in case anything happened to him. He meant well, in the beginning.”

“...and now?” Kushina didn’t blink, she didn’t make an expression at all as Sakura spoke. “Does he still mean well?” Kushina pressed her thumb lightly against Sakura’s bruised hand. Sakura flinched and pulled her hand back to her chest protectively. Menma waited, his eyes watching his mother with a new intensity and respect.

“In his own way.” Sakura wouldn’t meet the woman’s eyes, she couldn’t. “The marriage has been arranged. I’ll be provided for when the time comes.”

“Marriage?” Blue eyes flickered back to his friend, what was that? Menma frowned. “What marriage, yours?”

“Yeah.” Sakura looked up to see Menma’s face contort in confusion. 

She hadn’t told him about her arranged marriage. Not because she didn’t want him to know, she was eight, honestly, she had forgotten about it. Marriage seemed so far away and unimportant with everything else going on in her life it hadn’t occurred to her to even bring it up. Looking at his face though, she realized maybe, she should have told him.

“...but you’re a civilian and not from a wealthy family, why would you have an arranged marriage?” He didn’t understand, nor did he like the idea of Sakura being taken away from him one day. Why hadn’t she told him?

‘You’re still pups, relax kid.’ Kurama was annoyed.

‘Quiet.’ Menma scolded the fox, Sakura was speaking again, he didn’t want the nine tails distracting him right now.

“My mother’s bloodline is old. Special.” Sakura explained. “She was wealthy, her family I mean. It was part of her dowry, to ensure the bloodline that any daughters produced from her marriage would be wed back into Suna society. My father’s second wife…” Sakura swallowed.

“...was my mother’s sister. If there is a daughter from their marriage, the arrangement is the same.” She began to blink rapidly, forcing her tears back. “I thought, since she was related to my mother that she might, uh I don’t know…”

“Love you?” Kushina finished Sakura’s sentence for her. “I understand. Come here baby.” Kushina pulled Sakura up onto her lap and hugged her against her chest.

“Don’t think about that now okay, Minato will help you, he’ll make things right okay? Your mother may have been from Suna but your father is from Konoha. You’re a Konoha citizen Sakura.” Kushina rocked the little girl back and forth in her arms as Sakura peeked out from under Kushina’s thick red hair at Menma.

“You can stay with us as long as you like okay?” Kushina turned to her son. “Why don’t you take Sakura upstairs and get ready for bed. I’ll make both of your lunches for school tomorrow. It’s been awhile since you’ve been to school Menma, it will be nice to go back won’t it?” Kushina baited her son while Sakura crawled out of Kushina’s clammy embrace.

“It will be nice to be with Sakura.” Menma rose from the table, draining the last of his milk from his glass and taking Sakura’s hand.

“Whatever keeps you in school.” Kushina muttered as she cleared the table. “Not that they will teach you anything you don't already know but…” Kushina turned to watch her son and his friend run up the stairs to his room. “...maybe she can teach you what your father and I couldn’t. Maybe you’ll listen to her, since you don’t listen to anyone else.”

Menma could hear his mother muttering to herself but he chose not to acknowledge her complaints. No, he didn’t care what anyone thought about him, the teachers at the academy didn’t have anything to teach him that he didn’t already know but yes, Sakura, could teach him things he never knew he needed to know. Already, she had taught him what it was like to fear something, to be afraid.

That’s what had been bothering him, that’s what had kept the fox more subdued that evening, fear, understanding and perhaps, a bit of curiosity for their new companion. “Hum.” He hummed to himself as he led Sakura back up the stairs to his bedroom. Something to think about, later.

“I’ll just uh, go get changed and brush my teeth.” Sakura picked her bag up off the end of Menma’s bed and walked to the bathroom.

“Don’t you want to take a bath first?” He followed her. “We don’t uh, have to bathe together, you can bathe alone if you want.”

“That’s okay Menma, sorry but I’m just really tired and want to go to bed.” She turned at the door of the bathroom to look at him. “Thanks for being such a good friend to me tonight.”

She was embarrassed he realized as she shut the door to the bathroom. 

‘Of course she is, boy. Her family’s dirty secret is out there for others to see, to judge her by. Be careful with her.’ Kurama warned Menma.

Menma scoffed. ‘Since when do you care about Sakura? Weren’t you against the idea of me sharing my chakra with her?’ He walked back to his room and pulled a pair of pajama pants from his drawer.

‘I changed my mind.’ Black Kurama said enigmatically. ‘I never said I didn’t like her, I didn’t know her and neither did you. It was an impulsive decision and you’re rarely impulsive. Only a fool jumps into a fray barking like a mad dog before assessing the situation.’ Kurama wrapped himself up on the floor of Menma’s subconscious and tucked his nose under his front paw.

‘Impulsive but beneficial, for both of us.’ Menma countered.

‘Both of us?’ Kurama lifted his head curious as to what the boy was getting at with such cryptic talk.

‘Did you not hear Sakura earlier when she was talking to mom? She has an ancient bloodline, an ancient enough one to entice an agreement of marriage upon her conception.’ Menma frowned. That would be dealt with, later. An arranged marriage wasn’t going to stop Menma from keeping Sakura. She couldn’t marry her intended, if he was dead.

‘So?’ Kurama laid his head back down over his paws and waited. No doubt the boy had already begun formulating a plan for the next ten years in his head. It was only a matter of time for the events to play out, exactly as Menma planned them to. It was something Kurama had grown to trust in the boy over the last five years. It was what had led Black Kurama to surrender his full power to the boy. Trust. Menma Uzumaki was wise beyond his age.

‘So, I need to find out what clan she is from.’ Menma said as he pulled the covers down from the top of his bed and tucked in the corners. Which side would she prefer to sleep on he wondered. ‘I need to know what kind of blood flows through her veins.’ He continued his train of thought.

‘Her father is from Konoha but it seems her mother was from Suna, how many prominent civilian clans are there in Suna, not many.’ Kurama closed his eyes.

‘Civilian clans, hum no, not many. Suna is primarily a combatant based village, most of their citizens are shinobi.’ Menma sat on the right side of his bed, the side closest to the window. If someone came into his room, the greatest threat would come from the window not the floors below. He would put Sakura on his right, on the left side of the bed, for her protection.

“Here.” He motioned to the left side when Sakura reappeared in the frame of his bedroom door. “You will sleep on this side.”

Sakura nodded, not at all put off by his commanding way of speaking to her. She felt it was his way of showing her he cared enough to be bossy with her. If he didn’t care, his tone would be dull, relaxed and distant she surmised. If he granted her with speech. She doubted Menma spoke to anyone he didn’t want to and even more that he would want to speak with anyone but her.

Blue eyes watched Sakura slip her dress into her bag. Menma took in the unusual shade of her hair, like he had when he had first laid eyes on her in the park and stiffened. He had never seen anyone with pink hair like hers, like a sakura blossom and with green eyes, like new spring grass. ‘She doesn’t come from a civilian clan Kurama.’ That’s what it was, that was what was so different about her, what made her stand out from the rest.

Kurama’s ears twitched. ‘What? Of course she does, she hardly has any chakra kid.’ This guy...Kurama started to chuckle, the walls of Menma’s inner mind vibrating with the nine tails amusement.

‘She pushed her chakra into my hand, like I did with her. She volunteered, I didn’t ask her to, I didn’t even tell her how really, she did most of it on her own Kurama. If she truly was a civilian born, she wouldn’t have been able to muster that much control, that much chakra. If she really didn’t have very much chakra, she wouldn’t have passed out Kurama, she would have died after giving me her chakra.’ Menma watched Sakura climb into bed next to him, her movements hesitant.

“Come on, lay down.” Menma pulled her further into the bed, turned her in his arms and moved against her back to spoon her from behind, his cheek on his pillow, his chin on top of Sakura’s head. “You’re safe with me, you know that right? You’re mine.”

Sakura nodded as Menma buried his nose in the back of her neck, into her hair.

‘So, her intended from Suna?’ Kurama was beginning to understand.

‘Will be a shinobi.’ Menma smirked against Sakura’s skin. ‘Good. Being a civilian wouldn’t have prevented his death, if he is a shinobi, depending on how skilled he is, however, might be more entertaining.’ Menma closed his eyes and breathed out slowly, relaxing into the small warm body of his bedmate, moving his head back and away from Sakura to let her adjust herself in his embrace.

“Sleep well Sakura. I’m here, if you need me.” Menma’s voice came over the top of her head as he settled back against her, calming her nerves.

“Good night Menma. Thank you.” Sakura closed her eyes, secure in knowing that she wasn’t alone anymore. Even if it was only for tonight, she had Menma. It was more than she had ever had before. It didn’t matter what tomorrow brought because right now, she was safe.

Kizashi narrowed his eyes at his wife, ignoring the cold and steely stare of Hatake Kakashi as they sat in their living room, waiting for one of Danzo’s Root members to arrive. “Lord Danzo will not be pleased.”

Hatake felt more than saw Mebuki Haruno stiffen in her seat. What was this?

“I am not the only guilty party to this debacle Kizashi.” Mebuki’s voice was hard, lacking all of the hysterics it had earlier in the Hokage’s office. Mebuki picked up the decanter on the living room table and poured herself a second glass of bitter sake. “You also made poor decisions this evening.”

“True, but you certainly pushed our circumstances over the edge didn’t you Mebuki?” Kizashi blamed his wife for the night’s events, that much was clear to Hatake. The man wasn’t bothering to code his words, to hide their meaning, why? Surely he knew anything he said, anything his wife said would be reported to the Hokage. Fools.

“My sister never should have married you. I never could see what she saw in you, still can’t. I never wanted to be here, but you already know that don’t you? Have known it since we spoke our vows, what a joke.” It wasn’t a question. Her breath was just as bitter as her words. A tired half sob, half spiteful laugh escapes her lips. The woman nearly sneered at her husband.

“You wouldn’t would you. You never were one to look past the end of your own nose Mebuki. If there had been another choice, a third sister, rest assured I would have chosen her over you in a heartbeat.” Kizashi’s words cut through Mebuki’s growing alcoholic haze.

“You bastard! There’s a reason we’ve never conceived you know! I made sure of it!” She threw her nearly full sake cup across the room at her husband’s head. She was sick of his contempt, his ridicule. She was never good enough, she was nothing to him, less than nothing, a burden, an obligation. Her bottom lip quivered.

She hated him. She hated her sister. She hated her clan for forcing her into this loveless marriage.

“Fool, like I didn’t know. Like I couldn’t tell you were preventing my seed from reaching that putrid womb of yours. You underestimate me Mebuki, something your sister never did.” Kizashi’s cold eyes grew even colder. 

“I used your body like you used my daughter, for my own release. You belittle Sakura to alleviate your insecurities of never attaining the capability of being half the woman your sister was, just as I used your body to momentarily quell my desires for my dead wife.” Kizashi sneered. “Your jealousy of Sakura is pathetic, you’re not even in the same league as my daughter. You may share the blood of your sister with my daughter, but you’re nothing. Nothing like either of them Mebuki.”

“Do you really think it was you I was fucking Mebuki? You’re not worth my time or my pleasure. Why do you think I never open my eyes when I touch you, when I come in you. I’m not fucking you. I’m making love to my wife.” Kizashi looked out the window. Death was coming. 

So, it had come to that, had it, very well then. They were running out of time. He was running out of time. He had to make this right or his soul would never rest. He had to make this right or he would never be able to face Sakura’s mother in the afterlife. There was so much he should have told her, he had been a fool. He had been so selfish.

“Hatake san.” Kizashi stood, then bowed low to the Anbu captain. “Forgive me for the trouble I caused you this evening.”

Hatake blinked, once. What was this? Why was…

“Please, look after Sakura for me and...thank the Lord Fourth for his generosity. Perhaps, not all is lost. They do say that our children are our one redeeming quality, do they not?” Kizashi smiled, his chin in his chest. No, Hatake didn’t understand why he was saying such things but maybe, maybe Sakura would when she got older and the man would tell the Hokage, Kizashi was sure of it.

“Forgive me Sakura, we loved you. Your mother and I both loved you very much, so much that we were willing to let you go, in order to protect you.” Kizashi blinked back the moisture in his eyes. He would accept his end like a man. Conscious clear, eyes focused.

The air around them changed. A heavy disappointment filled the room. When Kizashi raised his head, Hatake was gone. A skinny boy stood in the middle of the room, a short sword on his back, the mid drift of his shirt cut away to reveal pure white skin. Root.

“Lord Danzo sends his regards Haruno san.” The boy spun on his heel once, then twice. Kizashi and his wife Mebuki hit the floor with a muted thud, blood trickling from the corners of their open mouths. “...and his regret.”


	10. Chapter 10

The usual morning rabble increased around him causing him to raise his head in annoyance. What was getting the idiots so worked up so early in the morning, Sasuke blinked once, turned his head toward the window where most of the class was on their feet, their faces pressed to the glass like visitors to a zoo.

Between the crammed bodies of his murmuring classmates he saw a flash of pastel pink. Sakura. What was the big deal about Sakura, since when did anyone take notice of her? Sasuke laid his head back down on the long table in front of him and closed his eyes again.

“He’s not coming to class today is he? Are they holding hands?” Sasuke heard Ino Yamanaka ask anyone who was listening to her as loudly as possible.

“Doubt it.” The Nara heir leaned against the window with half hooded lazy eyes. “Why would he?”

‘He?’, Sasuke turned his head on the table and looked toward the window. There was a break in bodies and he could see what they saw now. Sakura Haruno, the quiet withdrawn little mouse of the class was walking hand in hand with...what the hell...Menma Uzumaki, the Lord Fourth’s son.

Sasuke’s head shot up off the table. This was new. When had…

“Are they friends?” Choji asked Shikamaru. “It looks like they’re friends but I don’t remember seeing them together before this. In fact I don’t remember ever seeing Menma with anyone?”

It was true. Sasuke hadn’t seen the Fourth Hokage’s son with anyone from their class before either. Menma tended not to get along with others. It was well known in Konoha that Menma, like him, was a loner. It seemed something had changed.

“Looks like more than friends to me, but really who cares.” Shikamaru pushed off from the window and made his way to the back of the room and sat down away from the window, across from the divide. “It’s not that big of a deal.”

“It’s strange though isn’t it?” Choji followed his friend, sitting down beside the Nara.

It was a big deal. Ino continued to look out the window. It was a really big deal. If it wasn’t, the entire class wouldn’t be pressed up against the window staring at them.

“I saw them in the park the other day.” Ino sat down on the other side of Shikamaru. “You know, when Ami was making fun of Sakura’s forehead?”

“Yeah?” Shikamaru slouched down in his seat. They all knew Ami picked on Sakura. Some of them, like Ino, felt sorry for the girl but no one ever stepped in, no one defended Sakura. Ino had come close a few times. Lazy brown eyes took in the relaxed set of Sakura’s shoulders. The girl’s head was up, her eyes on her friend, not on the ground per her usual. It seemed to Shikamaru, Ino’s assistance was no longer required. Sakura had found a friend. An unlikely friend, but a friend nonetheless.

“Yeah, he comforted her, he was worried I think.” Ino watched Menma open the door for Sakura to enter the academy before him. “Come to think of it, I saw them sitting under the big oak tree in the back of the park, Sakura was asleep, her head resting on his shoulder. I think they were the last ones to leave the park that night.”

“Yeah?” Shikamaru’s tone changed to a more inquisitive one. “Menma hates the park.”

Choji shrugged and looked toward the door where Menma and Sakura had just entered the classroom. The room fell eerily silent as they walked to the other side of the divide, by the window. Menma pulled out the chair for her with a soft smile on his face. They watched as he took the last seat, the one by the window, placing himself in between Sakura and the outside.

Sasuke understood. If someone came through the window, Menma would be there to protect her. It was shinobi tactics 101. Why did Menma care so much about Sakura though? Sasuke’s dark Uchiha eyes roamed the faces of his classmates, no one understood what had just happened did they? His eyes passed over Shikamaru, paused on Choji momentarily, then shifted back to Shikamaru who was watching Menma with a calculating eye. The Nara noticed.

“No.” Menma glanced away from Sakura quickly to the boy who had tried to sit on Sakura’s other side, in the open, vacant seat.

“No?” The brown haired boy asked confused.

“Sit somewhere else, this back row is taken.” Menma held Sakura’s eyes with his, speaking to the boy without making eye contact. He wasn’t worth the effort.

“It’s empty though and…” The boy began to protest.

Menma, without warning, pulled three regular kunai from his belt, flicked his wrist and sent one kunai each, flying down the row. Each kunai embedded two inches into the three remaining, unoccupied chairs.

“Now they aren’t. Sit somewhere else.” Menma turned back to Sakura, taking her hand in his and petting it gently.

‘Show off.’ Kurama flicked his tails in amusement. Menma ignored the fox.

Sasuke’s eyes narrowed at Menma. Interesting. So it’s like that huh?

“Menma, how nice of you to join us today.” Iruka sensei ignored the kunai sticking out of the seat bases along the back row of his class, a smile on his face. “...and Sakura, how are you this morning?” Iruka sensei’s voice softened just a bit as he spoke to the little girl.

“Fine sensei.” Sakura didn’t meet his eyes, she knew, he knew.

Sasuke had noticed the slight discoloration on her left cheek and the way she held her right hand, he knew the Nara must have noticed it as well as the subtle change in their sensei’s voice. He could see Shikamaru, his head on the table, his eyes closed, but his ear twitched. He was listening.

Menma’s blue eyes grew in intensity as he dared Iruka to say something more, something telling, but he didn’t. Instead Iruka simply smiled and walked to his desk in the front of the classroom, setting his roll call book down before him, he began to take roll for the morning.

“It’s fine.” Menma squeezed Sakura’s hand. She had her other hand on the side of her face, patting it lightly. “Mom did a good job covering it up. It isn’t noticeable. My father probably told Iruka what happened. No one knows that doesn’t need to know.” He assured her.

“Ah.” Sakura dropped her hand to the table relaxing at his words. “Good.”

That morning, after breakfast, his mom took Sakura into the bathroom and covered the bruises on her face with a light layer of makeup. She knew Sakura would be self conscious, and she knew from her own experience how cruel children could be to one another, if she could spare the girl a little humiliation, she would. No one knew, that didn’t need to know, what had happened at the Haruno house last night and Kushina wanted it to stay that way.

Minato had come home, late, angry and full of aggravated energy last night, pacing back and forth in front of his wife who had stayed up to greet him.

_“Haruno and his wife are dead.” Minato stopped pacing and looked at his wife who had gasped, her hands covering her mouth in surprise. “Lord Danzo ordered it without my permission. His arrogance knows no bounds but Sarutobi won’t…” Minato waved his hand through the air in frustration unable to finish his sentence._

_Minato rarely got frustrated. Angry, yes. Worried, definitely, but frustrated to the point where he was unable to finish his thought, to put his concerns into words, never._

_“Something must be done about that man.” Kushina frowned. “I know he is an old friend of the Lord Third’s but his methods are too harsh, too questionable and he acts on his own without consultation.”_

_That’s what bothered Minato the most about Lord Danzo. The man acted as though he didn’t have to answer to anyone, like he knew what was best for Konoha and that he was acting in Konoha’s best interest._

_While that may be the case, while every action or decision the man made might truly be in Konoha’s best interest, it wasn’t his decision to make. It was Minato’s. Minato Namikaze was the current Hokage, not Sarutobi, not Lord Danzo._

_“I’m going to dismantle Root.” Minato clenched his fists together tightly. “Tonight.” The fourth Hokage walked out of his living room leaving his wife behind to look after the children._

_Stopping at the front door, he looked back over his shoulder at his wife who had followed him to the door, and smiled faintly. “Don’t worry Kushina. I’ll be right back.”_

Sakura ignored the frequent, barely suppressed glances of her classmates. She understood. They weren’t looking at her because they knew what happened at her house last night. They were looking at her because she was sitting next to Menma Uzumaki, Menma Uzumaki who never came to school, who was the nine tails jinchuriki and a prodigy like his father.

Knowing why they were looking at her didn’t make it any easier for her to ignore them though. She was grateful when Iruka sensei dismissed them for lunch and even more grateful that Menma had the foresight to wait until everyone had left the room before getting out of his seat, picking their bentos up that his mother had made for them, and leading her outside to sit on the academy steps to eat.

“This is really good.” Sakura picked up her second piece of seaweed roll, dipping it in the wasabi sauce Kushina had set into the left side of the bento, and chewing slowly her eyes closed in bliss. “Does your mom do this for you a lot?”

“You know I don’t go to school much.” Menma was almost done with his own lunch, only two pieces of his seaweed roll were left in his box. “I’m sure she would if I went to school everyday though.”

Sakura looked down at the neatly packed box full of seaweed roll pieces, cookies, sesame roll pieces and two different kinds of dipping sauce. “You’re so lucky Menma. My mom never made me lunch, I had to make my own.”

“My mom can make it for you from now on.” He popped the last two pieces of rolled rice into his mouth and chewed quickly. “Finish your food, I want to try something.”

“What?” Sakura asked around a mouthful of rice and sesame seeds, putting her thoughts of his happy home life to the back of her head.

“I want to uh, see if I can infuse more chakra into you, through your hands.” He watched her eyes, she didn’t understand. Good. “You handled it so well the first time, so I thought, you know, we could bond a little more.” He wanted to see if her coils could handle more of his chakra. He wanted to see if she would be as strong as he suspected she could be.

“Oh, well okay.” Sakura swallowed another bite of food. Only two more pieces left. “Did you want me to push more of my chakra into you?” 

“I don’t think that is a good idea if you want to stay until the end of the day.” He motioned toward their classroom, past the row of gawking students. “You passed out for a few hours last time.” He smiled at her.

“True. Maybe we can try later though? I think I got the hang of it. I have been going over it in my head, mapping out the chakra coils and I think I came up with a much more efficient way to transfer chakra from one person to another.” She picked up one of her two cookies and took a bite.

“I think it depends on compatibility.” Sakura picked up her other cookie. “...but you already knew that didn’t you Menma?” She looked up as he looked away from her. Yeah, he knew.

“You knew.” He wasn’t asking her, there was no point, this was just a formality it seemed. “You knew I was going to the park to watch you.”

“You never go to the park. You never went to the park before I mean. I noticed. You were only there, when I was there.” Sakura set the lid to her bento on top of the box and snapped the elastic band back in place. “When you spend most of your time watching others, wishing you could join them, you notice things like that.”

“Ah.” Menma was surprised, and maybe a little annoyed too. He didn’t realize she had noticed him, noticed he had been watching her. “You weren’t, I mean...it didn’t bother you, that I was there to watch you?”

“No.” Sakura smiled a little smile to herself. “At first I didn’t think you were watching me, not really. I thought maybe you were just, you know, there but after a few days, after I think you were accustomed to my routine I noticed you would move every so often in your tree or on your bench, your eyes were always following me.”

Well then, Menma ignored the fox’s cackling inside his head. “I guess I’ll need to work on my stealth skills. How come you didn’t say anything?”

“I wanted a friend.” She shrugged. “I figured you would come to me eventually, or you wouldn’t. Either you would make up your mind to approach me, or you would find another target.”

“Another target.” He liked the way she said that. “No, I don’t think so. I don’t want another target.”

“Me either.” Sakura smiled, her eyes crinkling into shiny half moons of delight.

“Come on. We wasted all of our time talking.” Menma picked her empty box up and stacked it on top of his. “We’ll try my thing after class okay, maybe go to the park after school?”

“Yeah.” Sakura nodded enthusiastically. “I’d really like that Menma.”

Ino ignored the gossip. The talk hadn’t stopped, not even after Iruka sensei had taken roll call that morning. Iruka sensei had stopped class three times to yell at them for talking too much. This wasn’t going to end anytime soon. Ino who was a born gossip knew, as long as there was something this juicy to talk about, the kids would keep talking.

Yamanaka blue passed along the fence line to the sensei who had also come outside to eat lunch in the warming weather and sunshine. The kids weren’t the only ones gossiping it seemed. Several of the sensei were also casting the unlikely duo furtive looks, their tongues wagging like their students.

All in all though, Ino was kind of happy. Sakura looked happy, really happy. In fact, Ino didn’t think she had ever seen the little mouse smile so much, or laugh so loudly than when she was with Menma. 

“...thinks she’s something else doesn’t she. Sitting there with the Lord Fourth’s son, eating with him, talking with him, smiling like that!” Ami glared at Menma and Sakura. “What could he possibly see in her? Why would he choose to be friends with that nobody?” Ami was pissed. All of her friends nodded along with her, casting disparaging glances of their own toward the two friends who chose to sit farther away from everyone else.

“It’s like they’re in their own world.” Ami grit her teeth. She was seething. “Like none of the rest of us even exist.”

“You still like him? I thought you liked Sasuke?” One of Ami’s friends asked, a look of confusion on her chubby face.

“Idiot, of course I like Sasuke! It’s just, Menma is too good for that.” Ami pointed directly at Sakura and huffed.

“You sound like you’re jealous of her.” The brown haired girl observed, unwisely.

“Shut up!” Ami smacked her in the back of the head putting an effective end to the conversation.

While Sasuke didn’t agree with everything his fellow classmates were spouting off around him, he couldn’t help but wonder, like the rest of them, what Menma saw in Sakura. She seemed so weak, so ordinary, so boring to him that he just didn’t get it. Did Menma see something in the girl he didn’t?

Sasuke tented his fingers under his chin as he leaned forward and observed Menma and Sakura sitting side by side across the school grounds, eating their lunch on the academy stairs. He narrowed his eyes. She was moving her hands back and forth in front of her face, her eyes steady, her breathing controlled, then…

There was something about her, something subtle and almost...Sasuke shook his head when the bell rang. He blinked the sun out of his eyes, no, he watched Sakura stand up and brush a few grains of rice from her shirt, it was nothing he must have imagined it but for a moment he thought...no, it was impossible.

Both of her parents were civilians. Everyone knew that. Sasuke rose with the rest of the class and lined up in front of the academy, waiting for the doors to open to let them back inside. Menma and Sakura were standing a few paces away, ignoring everyone else as they talked and held hands.

“I think if I just concentrate more, maybe focus my chakra into a point it will help.”

Sasuke heard Sakura tell Menma.

“Possibly, but I think you should concentrate on generating chakra, instead of focusing it into a point of any specific location. You have more chakra in you than you think, at least that’s my hypothesis.”

What? Sasuke turned his head fully to the left and narrowed his eyes at Sakura, had he been wrong, had he really seen the faint green glow of what he thought was her chakra when…

“It appears we have an audience, Sakura.” Menma smirked at the Uchiha. “What’s wrong Uchiha? Do you find the weight of your loneliness today particularly oppressing?”

“Menma.” Sakura tugged on his hand where he held hers. “You shouldn’t…”

She knew, like all of them, what had happened to the Uchiha clan two years ago.

“Don’t act like you know me, son of the Hokage.” Sasuke’s face was blank, emotionless. He stood with his hands in his pockets, his back straight. He wasn’t afraid of Menma. Nine tails jinchuriki or not, it didn’t matter. He was Sasuke Uchiha, the last of the Uchiha of Konoha.

Menma snorted and took a step forward. Sasuke moved his left foot back and to the left a bit, lowering his center of gravity. Menma smirked, ‘he’s really gonna take me on?’, Menma laughed out loud, delighted.

“Everyone back inside, come on, let’s go. Lunch is over.” Iruka sensei stepped out in front of Sasuke, in between the Uchiha and the Uzumaki purposefully. “Have a lot to go over today.”

With another loud snort, Menma grabbed Sakura’s hand, shouldered Sasuke aside, stepping left then right past Iruka, dragging Sakura after him. Sakura turned her head back to grimace at Sasuke, a look of remorse on her face. 

‘Sorry.’ She mouthed to him as Menma tugged on her hand more forcefully before she disappeared around the corner of the academy front door.

“Hn.” Sasuke waited for the other children to make their way back into the building, his mind turning Sakura’s expression over and over in his head. His mouth quirked up in the corner. It wasn’t quite a smile but it wasn’t a frown.


	11. Chapter 11

“You have to tell her the truth.” Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage stared at the Lord Third in surprise. “She deserves to know what happened to her parents and why.” Minato insisted. 

Why would the Lord Third even think of keeping something like this from the Haruno girl. Minato didn’t voice his thoughts, but he thought Sakura, given time, would figure it out on her own anyway. If she found out they had kept this from her, the whole truth, it would cause problems later on, for all of them.

Sakura was clearly a very mature and intelligent little girl. Minato, after spending the short amount of time with her that he had, understood why Menma had chosen her as his friend. They shared certain qualities rarely found in children their age. He and Kushina learned long ago, keeping things from Menma, not allowing him to be part of the bigger picture, always, always backfired on them. He felt Sakura would be the same.

“I’m going to be honest with her. It is the best way to handle this situation Hiruzen. She’s a bight girl and under the circumstances I feel she will understand. Perhaps knowing the circumstances of her parents death will help her move on.” Minato explained his reasoning to the former Hokage.

“I don’t think that is wise. Who knows how she will react. I understand what you are saying Minato. Sakura is a bright girl there is no argument there, but she is still young and I don’t think she can handle the motive behind the action that resulted in her parents deaths.” Hiruzen Sarutobi took a long measured drag from his ancient pipe, the smoke pouring from his lips, clouded and obscure, like his words. “It could trigger something in her that could bring harm to the village.”

Harm to the village? Sakura wasn’t a jinchuriki, she didn’t have a tailed beast locked inside of her like Menma did. Lose control of what? Minato didn’t understand, what did the Lord Third mean by saying Sakura might lose control unless he knew something about her history that wasn’t common knowledge. Kushina told him what the girl had told her and Menma last night about her mother’s bloodline, about her arranged marriage and how Mebuki had been her mother’s sister.

“You knew.” Minato stared at the sensei of his sensei, the student of the Second Hokage. “What else have you been keeping from me?”

“Now Minato, it isn’t what you think.” Sarutobi sighed out a great sigh, he was tired, he had been up all night with Minato but unlike Minato, he wasn’t a young shinobi anymore. His prime had long since left him. He was getting too old for this. “Not everyone is aware of ties the Haruno family has to Oto and Suna. Until now, it wasn’t necessary for you to know the Haruno family had a foothold in another village.”

“Okay.” Minato tried to relax. “I’m listening. Tell me about Kizashi and his wife, both of his wives, and why he said Sakura has an arranged marriage waiting for her in Suna.”

“Yes, all in good time. First, allow me to explain one thing to you Minato. Sakura, she thinks she was born into a civilian family and she must continue to think that, for her own protection. We haven’t spent the last eight years keeping her clan a secret only to reveal it when she is at her most vulnerable.” Hiruzen set his pipe down on it’s holder on the table and fixed Minato with a knowing look.

Minato realized then that the Third Hokage didn’t know Sakura was already aware of her unique bloodline, just as he realized Sakura herself didn’t know she was most likely from a prominent shinobi clan, from Suna. Sakura may not realize it, but he was sure his son did which meant she would know eventually.

Like he said before, telling the truth is always the best way to handle things. It all made sense to Minato now. The secrecy, and he wondered, what clan her mother was from, what clan her father was from, were they both shinobi, did it matter right now though? Sakura’s clan wasn’t what was important, not to Minato and not to Kushina, or even Menma he was sure. What was important was what would happen to Sakura. What did her parents murder mean for the little girl’s future and what was his responsibility to her, as the Hokage and as Menma’s father.

There were some very important decisions to be made, and soon. For now, he would listen to what the Lord Third had to tell him. Whether he abided by the Lord Third’s desire to keep Sakura in the dark, was still under consideration.

“Her father is dead. If it was on Danzo’s orders, we can not say for sure, there is no proof. What would be his motive? There is none.” Sarutobi raised his hand in the air to prevent Minato from interjecting. “Just as your claims about Danzo’s nefarious activities have no proof.” The Lord Third added.

“A Root member dismissed Hatake and not three minutes later the Harunos were found dead in their living room by a village patrol.” Minato pressed his lips together to prevent himself from elaborating. “Just because we can’t find a motive for his actions, doesn't mean there isn’t one. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t look for one.”

“If you look for something, hoping to find something there is no doubt you will find any number of potential motives Minato.” The Lord Third warned. 

“You claim Danzo acted without council, that he has his own hidden agenda and yet you too acted alone Minato. You entered Root last night, took Danzo into custody without written cause and have him in T&I as we speak.” Sarutobi raised a bushy greying eyebrow at the current Hokage.

“I had just cause.” The Fourth Hokage stood his ground.

It had always been like this. 

No matter what he said, no matter what proof he found, it was always dismissed. It was maddening. That’s why he had taken it upon himself, that’s why he had infiltrated Root and brought Danzo in for questioning last night. If he hadn’t, the man would have been warned, would have taken counter measures to ensure his innocence and Minato would have been left empty handed, again.

Not this time though. This time he would have all the proof he needed to put the man away, to strip him of his title, of his rank, and to seal his chakra away for good.

“Inoichi is performing the interrogation that is true, however I did not act as impulsive as you imply. The council voted on my emergency request late last night, granted by the grace of one vote, one vote that pushed the scale. I only want justice, Lord Third, for Sakura, for Konoha.” Minato inclined his head to Sarutobi with respect.

“Justice.” Hiruzen murmured. “To be sure but justice isn't always black and white is it Minato, sometimes we are forced out of our comfort zones. Sometimes, we are forced to look beyond the grey.”

Minato nodded. He understood. “Underneath the underneath.” ...but sometimes, hope was blind. Minato rubbed his chin as he looked at his sensei’s sensei. He had heard about Orochimaru from Jiraiya sensei. Love was a burden as much as it was a gift. Minato didn’t judge Sarutobi for his sympathies, no. He did after all share some of those sympathies with the man, however, unlike The Lord Third, he also knew death was sometimes the only answer to protect the innocent. Sakura was innocent and her parents were dead. She needed to be protected.

She would be protected. He knew his son would see to that. Minato smiled to himself recalling how he had ‘rescued’ Kushina when they were the same age as Menma and Sakura. Perhaps his son was a little more conscientious than he was at their age. Maybe if he hadn’t left Kushina to her own devices he never would have had to ‘rescue’ her in the first place. Maybe his son was more like his mother and father than he and his wife thought.

Minato smiled softly to himself as the Lord Third began to speak again.

“Underneath the underneath. Yes. Kizashi’s daughter, you said she spent the night with you and your family last night?” Sarutobi inquired, picking his pipe back up and lighting it with a minor fire jutsu.

“Yes, her and Menma are at the academy right now.” Minato looked out the window of his office. “They should be getting out of school soon.”

“Hum.” Sarutobi continued to stoke his pipe. “Do as you see fit with the girl Minato, but I think it unwise to tell her everything. Tell her about her parents to be sure, about their deaths but…”

“I do not know as much about her parents as you seem to think I do Lord Third.” Minato forced a smile to his mouth, this didn’t sit well with him. Something wasn’t quite right, there was something missing here, something was off.

“All in good time. The only thing Sakura needs to know right now is that she is orphaned, that her father’s estate, his business is now hers and that any ties her mothers held with Suna and Oto...are now hers as well. I understand the girl had an arranged marriage. It will need to be looked into. Sometimes those sort of arrangements are littered with contingencies, variables and offsets.” Sarutobi knocked his pipe on the edge of the desk, the ash falling into the palm of his outstretched hand.

“You mean if both of her parents are dead, she might be relieved of her contract?” Minato speculated.

Hiruzen lifted his head at the man’s invested tone. “Has Menma grown that attached to her already? My Anbu were under the impression he was rather infatuated with her but they failed to mention just how infatuated he is with her, from the tone of your voice.” The Lord Third’s eyes dance with humor. “Not everyone is as fortunate to meet their intended as you and Kushina, Minato.” The old man laughed humorously.

“No, they aren’t. We were fortunate but it isn’t uncommon for shinobi to meet and fall in love quickly. Our lives are short enough typically with no guarantee of old age. Not everyone is as fortunate as you are, Lord Third.” Minato returned the humorous smile. 

“Menma is an enigma.” Everyone knew that. “He has taken a rather surprisingly strong liking to Sakura, we all have. She is a very sweet girl. After seeing the bruises on her face and hands…” Minato met Hiruzen’s eyes with all the seriousness the topic of discussion warranted. “Kushina and I, along with Menma can’t help but feel a little protective of the girl.”

Hiruzen refilled his pipe, methodically tapping down the tobacco then lighting it. “I see.” The Lord Third smiled at Minato. “I’ll make the arrangements and let you know when the papers are ready. Now, I imagine there are two little children getting out of class right about now that would love to hear the good news along with the bad.”

“Arrangements?” Minato blinked.

“For the adoption. You’ll need to swear an oath in front of the council, you and Kushina both before taking the girl into custody.” Sarutobi nodded as though to himself. “Sakura will be pleased I’m sure. I can see the happiness in Kushina’s eyes already. You wanted a daughter didn’t you?”

“We, yes uh, so…” Minato was near speechless. The Lord Third didn’t have to do this, advocate for them like this. Minato was under no false impressions as to the man’s kindness, nor his boldness in doing this for him and his wife. Only...

Minato rose from his seat and bowed respectfully to Sarutobi. “Before you make any arrangements, I would like to speak with Sakura first, if you don’t mind. It only seems fair she has a say in her future.” Minato smiled a warm smile at his predecessor.

“I expected you would.” Hiruzen smiled back at the blonde. “Go on now. Inoichi won’t be done for quite some time. We will check in on Danzo and the Yamanaka together, after you’ve had a chance to speak with Sakura and the rest of your family.”

“Thank you.” Minato bowed again before jumping out of his office window, racing over the rooftops toward the academy.

Hiruzen Sarutobi stretched his legs out in front of himself before rising to his feet, his hands behind his back and his pipe hanging from his lips. “This could have been so much worse.” He muttered to himself. “Thank kami we are the only ones who know about this so far.”

The old man walked out of the Hokage’s office, down the curving hall to the left, then down the stairs to the busy Konoha street. How long did they have, before Suna found out. How long should he wait before notifying them. Arranged marriage or not, not just one of their daughters had been murdered in Konoha but two along with their husband. They would blame him, or Minato, Konoha, definitely.

Kizashi was from Konoha, but his clan, the Harunos, were originally from Oto which is why he was able to marry into the reigning clan that still dominated Rain country. A merchant clan with shinobi ties whose half Suna patriarch reigned with an iron fist.

Rain was a relatively small country, but Suna was vast, combative in nature and harsh like the desert that engulfed it’s capital. Anyway you looked at it, this was a very precarious situation. It was fortunate for the Leaf Menma Uzumaki had taken such a strong interest in the little Haruno girl, in a way it made things both easier and much more political.

Menma was strong, talented and the nine tailed fox’s jinchuuriki, but he was also the current Hokage’s son. Suna might not take kindly to this sudden turn of events and Oto, well Oto...could very well cut off trade to the Leaf for the murder of thier daughters. Hiruzen rubbed his hands over his face.

“Damn it Kizashi. Couldn’t you have done something to prevent this, couldn’t you have at least waited until Sakura had grown up a bit more, had become a genin?” Sarutobi shook his head regretfully. If the girl had been older, if she held rank in the village this would have been so much easier. She would have been of age to make her own choices. So much blood. So much hate. History wasn’t always kind to those who outlived it.

It was unavoidable. 

The more the Lord Third thought about it, the more he knew he would need to contact the Kazekage, immediately. He would let Minato handle the girl. He hadn’t been lying when he told the man his Anbu had understated the boy’s fascination with Sakura. This could end either very well, or very poorly. Hiruzen tilted his head back to look up into the clear blue spring sky and sighed.

He needed a man he could trust. One that Minato was unlikely to protest against. The children must be watched, for their own protection, now more than ever. Both of them, whether they were aware of it or not had been watched since their births, because of who they were. One a jinchuriki, the other a princess of Suna living in Konoha. Once word got out about this...there was no telling what the Kazekage would do.

“Hatake.” There was only one man both he and Minato would agree on for such a task. One who had been the Lord Third’s personal Anbu and one who had been Minato’s student. “Kakashi Hatake.”


	12. Chapter 12

Menma could feel his father’s aggravated chakra signature moving toward the academy before the last bell of the day had rung. Blue eyes searched the horizon, waiting for the flash of, there it was. His father was on the rooftop of the library, waiting for them.

Clearly, something happened, something important that he felt he must tell them in person. Menma squeezed Sakura’s hand under the cover of their table as Iruka assigned them their homework for the weekend.

“There won’t be any class tomorrow. I’ll expect your papers first thing Monday morning after your long weekend, no excuses and no extensions.” Iruka sensei caught Shikamaru’s eye as everyone rose from their seats.

“Come.” Menma tugged Sakura to her feet, barely waiting for her to grab her bookbag. “My father is waiting for us.” He nodded to the window.

Sakura could see the Fourth Hokage on the roof of the library, a feeling of dread swirling in her stomach. There was only one reason for the Hokage to come himself. Like Menma, she understood. Something of substance had happened. She wondered if it was her parents or if...he had come for her.

“It’s okay Sakura. You trust me right?” He took her back pack from her and threw it over his shoulder. “I won’t let anyone hurt you ever again, no matter what my father has come to tell you.” He promised her.

Sakura nodded. She didn’t trust her voice not to crack or break.

“Menma.” Minato nodded to his son. “Sakura, there are some things we need to discuss. I’d like you to come home with me now, you and Menma both. Kushina needs to hear what I have to say as well. We will discuss it as a family, make the decision as a family.” He bent down to the ground, onto his right knee and hugged Sakura. 

“Whatever we decide, you won’t be alone, okay?” Blue eyes, full of concern and love held her simple green in earnest, waiting for her to acknowledge his words, his promise.

“Okay.” She nodded, moving closer to Menma for support.

Mnema wrapped his arm around Sakura’s shorter shoulder, shifted the weight of her back pack, and nodded to his father.

“Right, well, let’s go talk to Kushina.” Minato rubbed the back of his head ignoring the gathered crowd of shinobi and their children. They were still in front of the academy. “I have a few hours before I need to get to the T&I building, but I don’t want to rush this, so we should get going.”

Kushina was in the kitchen when they got home.

“Oh Minato is that you?” Kushina called over her shoulder, her hands in the sink. “I thought that was you moving back and forth but I couldn’t tell, you know I’m not as good of a sensor as you are. Sakura and Menma should be out of school by now. I hope they come home after school, I made them a snack. Sakura is far too skinny for my taste, she needs to be fed more. Those dreadful parents of hers Minato I swear I’ll…”

Kushina’s words died in her throat when she turned to find Sakura and Menma watching her, one with bored eyes, the other with interest.

“Oh dear. Sakura. I’m so sorry hunny, I didn’t mean uh…” Kushina wiped her hands on a towel by the sink, coming over to the small group by the front door. “Let me get that snack I was talking about.”

Minato smiled at his wife despite the heavy news he had to bear. She had always been like this, from the first day he met her at the academy, so full of energy and opinions. His hand dropped down onto Sakura’s pink head. Pink. Like blonde and red mixed together. It would be difficult if Sakura chose to stay with them. Minato wasn’t ignorant of the danger it would put his family in but he knew his family.

Even if Menma didn’t think so. Even if he and Kushina had doubts, they knew their son. Menma wouldn’t let the girl go without a fight, there really was only one alternative, only one suitable outcome. Ultimately though, the decision wasn’t theirs, it was Sakura's.

“So uh, livingroom?” Kushina walked out of the kitchen carrying a tray of cookies, small breads and seaweed crisps on a tray. “I’ll get some tea, be right back.” She set the tray on the coffee table, spun and headed back to the kitchen.

Sakura sat down on the couch, her eyes passing over the tray of goodies. “Does she always do this for you Menma, or is she only doing this to fatten me up?”

Minato laughed to himself as he took a chair opposite the couch.

“I’m hardly ever home.” Menma shrugged. “Don’t know.”

Again, Sakura didn’t understand how he could be so indifferent to his good fortune, but like he told her last night, if it was what he had always known…

“Okay, here we go. This is so nice having us all home right now isn’t it?” Kushina smiled at her husband. “What’s the special occasion?” She continued to smile.

Sakura lowered her eyes. She could see it now. Kushina was nervous too. Her smile was a bit too bright, a little too forced. She could tell too, something had happened.

“Hatake found your parents last night Sakura and brought them to me at the Hokage’s Tower.” Minato reached for his tea. “I assigned them to their home to stand trial for their questionable treatment of you. They were fleeing Konoha, toward Oto.”

Silence.

“I left them in Hatake’s care with the understanding a member of a certain association would come to relieve him of his duty but…” Minato watched the girl carefully. She was barely breathing. She didn’t move. There was no good way to tell someone their parents had been murdered. 

“Before they could be tried before the council, Sakura, someone killed them.” Minato bowed his head. “I’m sorry. I can’t tell you everything but I will tell you I think I know who did it. I don’t know why their deaths were ordered but…”

“You’re sorry?” Sakura lifted her chin to look the Hokage in the eye.

Menma noticed the energy in the room change, could feel her chakra pulse in time with her breathing. He knew that his father could feel it and possibly his mother as well. She had that look in her eyes, the same look she had in the park when she saw her death in the eyes of that wild dog.

‘I’ll not die like this!’, her little voice from that day rang through his head as he watched her stare his father down.

“I’m not sorry.” She told them.

Minato could see there was no pain in her eyes, only determination. She really wasn’t sorry that her parents had been murdered, and it was terribly disturbing to him. Even if they had been horrible to her, shouldn’t she feel something, even if it was anger? To look at her, he could see clearly, she felt nothing at all.

She was indifferent, like Menma.

“Maybe not right now Sakura, but someday you will be.” Kushina knelt down in front of the little girl. “Deni it all you want kid, they were your parents. Love them or hate them it doesn’t matter. One day you’ll care that they’re gone. You say you aren’t sorry now, but I don’t think that’s how you really feel. I think you’re in shock and maybe a bit relieved but not happy, no, you’re not happy and don’t try to tell yourself that you are.” Kushina pat Sakura on the head.

“Lying to yourself is the most foolish thing you can do to yourself and you’re not a fool are you kid?” Kushina gathered Sakura into her arms, looking at her son over the top of Sakura’s little pink head. “Minato could have kept this from you.” She told both of them. “You know that right?”

“I think the real question here is why were two civilian's important enough for Lord Danzo to send one of his Root members to kill them in the absence of their daughter.” Menma wasn’t going to be sidetracked with sentimentality.

“Root no longer exists.” Minato didn’t ask Menma how he knew about Root. It didn’t matter anymore. Root was no more, he had made sure of that last night. “Danzo is being investigated as we speak.”

‘I have to get back to the T&I building…’, that’s what his father had told them outside of the academy.

“Ah.” Menma nodded. “...and Sakura?” He asked his father, his eyes flickering from his friend who was still being smothered by his mother, back to his father.

“That’s why I wanted to wait to speak to everyone at the same time.” Minato waited for his wife to let Sakura go, motioning her to the chair beside him. “I’ll be honest with you Sakura, I wasn’t sure how you would react to hearing about your parent’s deaths.”

“Murders.” Sakura corrected him politely.

“Yes, murders.” Minato continued to watch the young girl. Her chakra had steadied, her pulse had calmed but… “I understand your father Kizashi had a marriage arranged for you in Suna after he and your mother learned of your conception.”

Sakura flinched, her eyes moving from Minato’s to Kushina’s.

“I told him. You didn’t tell me not to tell anyone. I wasn’t trying to blab Sakura, but it is important for Minato to know as much about your situation as he can so he can protect you better.” Kushina defended the girl’s silent accusation.

“I didn’t realize clarification was needed at the time.” Sakura’s voice was small. “I do now.” She squeezed Menma’s hand. He was the only one she could truly trust she realized.

“Sakura, no hunny that’s…” Kushina began.

“If Kushina hadn’t told me the Lord Third would have enlightened me this morning. In fact he told me unaware I already knew.” Minato tried to calm the girl.

“I need to know what you want to do Sakura.” Minato placed a hand on his wife’s leg to silence her. He had other places he needed to be. This needed to be settled before he could put other events into motion. “You have relatives in both Suna and Oto.”

Menma stiffened.

“However, your father’s will has yet to be located, if he even had one, to guide you into the next phase of your life. We, the Lord Third and I are unsure if your arranged marriage still stand due to the untimely death of not one but both of your parents. Once that is determined, whatever choice you make now will either be solidified or compromised, at that time.”

“My choice?” Sakura didn’t understand. “You mean I have to choose to move to Suna or Oto?” She didn’t want to move, she wanted to stay here, with Menma.

“Yes, your family in Oto and Suna could be contacted but as your father was a citizen of Konoha, like you yourself are a citizen of Konoha you can stay here, with us.” He looked to his wife who already had tears of joy in her eyes, her head bobbing up and down enthusiastically. Minato tried to deliver the facts as unbiased as he could, but there was no denying the fact that he too wished for Sakura to stay with them.

“With you?” Sakura’s nose scrunched up in confusion. “I can stay with you, here, live here and be...”

“Part of our family, yes Sakura. If you want to.” Minato smiled then, unable to hold it back any longer. “We would love to have you, right Menma?”

Menma couldn’t believe it. It was almost too good to be true. He had planned on killing her parents anyway but hadn’t been able to come up with a plan that ensured both his freedom and that Sakura would remain with him. This was fate, destiny… 

“Yes.” He choked out, his voice breaking with emotion for the first time in his life.

Kushina’s tears flowed down her cheeks as she watched her son struggle with his emotions. She was so happy. Her son was opening up to them, they had a daughter now and…

Minato’s heart clenched. Was this a good idea, had he just made a terrible mistake by inviting Sakura to come live with them? Menma was already possessive of the girl. What would happen if she ever outgrew him, or grew apart from him? What would his son do then, what would he do to Sakura if she ever wanted to leave or kami forbid, find interest in someone else?

No, Minato knew Sakura’s fate had been sealed the day Menma chose her to be his friend. There was very little he could do to persuade either of them otherwise at this point. He could however try to make sure their future was as healthy as possible though.

“Menma.” His father’s tone drew Menma from his deep thoughts of jubilation.

“She will be like your sister now as well as your friend. Sakura isn’t your pet, she is a person. I know you’re protective of her, that you care about her a great deal but Menma, she isn’t yours to control or to boss around do you understand?” His father’s voice was stern.

“I understand.” Menma’s blue eyes, a mirror of his father's, shone brightly as he looked at Sakura. “I understand exactly what Sakura coming to live with us means.”

‘It’s him that doesn't understand.’ Menma told Kurama who chuckled darkly.

‘Don’t worry about your father, focus on Sakura, she needs us. Look at her, she’s nervous. Can you blame her? Even if she didn’t love those villains, before you, they were all she had.’ Kurama watched Sakura through Menma’s eyes.

‘I’ll talk to her tonight. Maybe give her a little space if she needs it.’ Menma nodded to his fox. He didn’t need his father to dictate to him, he knew Sakura better than anyone, he was sure of it.

“What about my house and my things, my father's things?” Sakura pulled herself from Kushina’s kisses.

“The house is still yours. I’ve been told it is paid for, that your father didn’t owe any money to anyone and that all of his possessions were legally his own. So everything is yours Sakura. I’d like you to live here with us until you’re of age, or of Genin rank. After that, you can move back into your home if you like. Until then however, the home will be sealed. I can take you there tomorrow morning so you may gather your things if you like?” He offered.

“I can go alone, or with Menma.” Sakura bowed from her seat. “Thank you Hokage sama.”

“Minato, or if you like uh you can call me Minato kun?” A light dusting of pink fell across Minato’s cheeks. He would never tell her to call him ‘Dad’, he didn’t want to replace her biological father, but Minato kun was okay.

“Minato kun, thank you for taking me in.” Sakura rose to her feet and bowed properly to Minato, then turned to Kushina. “...and um, Kushina chan.”

“You can call me mom if you want to, um, if you want I mean you don’t have to if…” Kushina was almost vibrating in her seat with joy. “I know this is a bit sudden and of course you’ll need sometime to get used to all the changes. You’ll have your own room. I know Menma will want you to sleep with him in his bed but that’s not really appropriate, it was okay for last night but you’ll be living with us now so…”

“You let them sleep together last night?” Minato’s eyes widened in shock. “Kushina, I told you that…”

“Mom, stop.” Menma rolled his eyes at his mother and cutting his father off from what he was sure to be a long, drawn out lecture about propriety. It was so embarrassing. “I assume Sakura is taking the room next to mine?” Menma stood up and stretched his arms over his head walking to the stairs before his mother could answer him.

“Um, yes. I think it would be best. That way you can share the bathroom and still be close to one another right Minato?” She asked her husband.

“That’ll be fine. I don’t want you sleeping together anymore Menma.” Minato watched Menma pull Sakura up the stairs. “Kushina.” He began as soon as the children were out of sight.

“I know Minato but it probably isn’t as bad as you think. Menma is odd, sure, but he wouldn’t hurt her. He’s never had a friend before, he’s learning.” She immediately came to her son’s defense. “We were the same way when we were kids, remember? We never let one another out of our sight after that one night and be honest, you climbed into my bedroom window several times and I climbed into yours as well.”

The night he had rescued her. “I remember but doesn’t it feel...I don’t know different to you than it did for us?” Minato rubbed the back of his head. Was he being too cautious? 

“Well, maybe a little different. Menma is quiet, like you were, but stubborn like I am and it’s been hard for him to make friends. He’s just um, awkward and maybe he didn’t handle finding a friend the best way but he did find a friend, a nice one who needed him. I think that is important to Menma, that she needed him.” Kushina sipped her tea. “Now that Sakura lives with us, I’m sure it will get better. Menma won’t feel as possessive if she’s within reach all the time. He might even want his space after the novelty of a live in friend wears off.”

“Maybe you’re right.” He hadn’t thought of it like that. His wife was right. He didn’t need to worry about Sakura’s presence in their home strengthening the obsessive nature of his son, he should worry if Menma would get bored or annoyed with her consistency. He laughed at himself. He was overreacting.

“You’ll get them settled in? I should get back to Inoichi. It couldn’t have been easy for him to interrogate Danzo. We had to use twelve seals on the man and four Anbu to hold him down.” Minato hugged and kissed his wife. “I’ll be back. Flare your chakra if you need me.” He flicked the three pronged kunai hanging from the living room lamp with his finger.

“Good luck!” Kushina waved him out their front door with a smile on her face. “We’ll be fine hun. I’ll make Sakura a big dinner and then a snack later. It will be fun. Menma is here too, you don’t need to worry about a thing.”

‘That was easy.’ Kurama’s tails twitched back and forth as he watched the little pink haired girl walk around her new bedroom.

‘It isn’t over Kurama. I want to know why her parents were killed and if Suna or Oto will come looking for her.’ Menma pulled the guest sleeping futon out from the sliding cabinet door along the wall beside the window and set the pillow on top of the cabinet that also served as a reading nook.

‘Danzo killed her parents, that’s what your father said. He might not know why and as far as Suna and Oto are concerned, even combined they don’t pose a threat to the Leaf. You’re worried about nothing.’ Kurama rolled over onto his back stretching.

‘There’s more to Sakura than I thought. Why else would her parents have been killed in such a manner.’ Menma shook the bedding out and laid in on the floor in between the bedroom door and the window. ‘Someone will come for her, either from Oto or Suna, someone will come once word gets out that her parents are dead Kurama.’

‘You seem worried, why? Nothing’s bothered you before, is it because it’s her, Sakura?’ Kurama understood the boy just fine and how his mind worked.

‘Of course it is. I care about her and don’t act like you don’t care about her either, because I know you do. She’s growing on you, admit it.’ Menma patted Sakura’s pillow for her. ‘Fine, I admit it.’ Kurama rolled over the other way, his paws in the air. ‘Unlike you, I’m not afraid to express my feelings.’ Kurama chuckled.

“I’ll be right back. I’m going to get you another quilt. It’s still cold at night.” Menma ducked his head and walked to the bedroom door. Kurama was making him fidgety.

“Won’t you, I mean I know what your father said but won’t you sleep with me tonight? For the first night?” Sakura called out to him before he could leave. She wouldn’t make eye contact with him.

“Of course I will.” Menma left the room to get the quilt.

‘Everything is going to be fine.’ He told his fox. ‘I have nothing to worry about.’


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Thursday!
> 
> Most of you know, it is difficult for me to single ship Sakura. Love triangles and trapizoids are too intresting and delicious for me NOT to write for her. However, I will try to tone it down, or narrow it down in this fic for two reasons.
> 
> One, it's hard to multi ship her and keep all the facts straight to be realistic enough for a figmental shinobi chakra weilding world.
> 
> Second, I do it too much.
> 
> For that reason, I am taking the Saka/Sasu tag ship out and replacing it with, yeah some of you guessed it -Cough- TinySakura, Gaara/Sakura ship tag.
> 
> ...and a minor Sasori/Sakura ship tag.
> 
> ...and yes, I just took out one ship tag and replaced it with two:), but one of them is a minor ship tag! Mostly Sasori being his creepy Sakura admiring self...that I love to write!

Faint streams of dulled light fell across Menma and Sakura as they lay together on her futon. Sakura was tucked up against his side, her cheek resting against his chest, his fingers tangled in her hair as he held her as close as he could. She was warm and he thought, she felt like happiness. It was such a strong feeling, he had to will himself to breath.

His mother came in to check on them an hour ago. Menma didn’t mind his mother’s nosey tendencies as much as he usually did. It was as though they had come to some unspoken understanding as far as Sakura was concerned. An understanding that wasn’t offered by his father.

Minato was a good man. Menma knew his father wanted the best for him. He wasn’t adverse to his father’s advice. Minato had his son’s respect but Menma’s confidence in his own abilities out shown any wisdom his father could impart upon him, either of his parents wisdom was equal or below his own, in Menma’s opinion.

He was however grateful to them presently. Sakura was his now, more than he had ever hoped she would be so soon after their bonding, and their bond would only continue to grow from this day forward. Menma had made plans to ensure both of their dreams would come true.

His blue eyes almost glowed in the dark with possessiveness as he looked up from Sakura’s futon. His mother had left the room without saying a word, the house was quiet, peaceful and comforting to him in a way it had never been before. He knew he owed that to the girl beside him. He was almost grateful for his mother’s silence, her understanding or perhaps it was compliance. Even if she had told him to, he wouldn’t have let Sakura go. They belonged together. He was sure anyone who looked at them could see it, and even if they didn’t see it, he didn’t care.

His father had yet to return from the T&I building. Menma took that as a good sign. If they didn’t find anything, there would be nothing to discuss and surely his father would have been home by now if that were the case. Finding something meant motive. Soon, he hoped they would have a better understanding of why Danzo ordered Sakura’s parents' murders. The alternative, he would go hunting on his own, and that would take away from his time with Sakura. He hoped they found something, for Sakura’s sake. She needed closure so she could move on and forget. 

Menma was young but he knew that he could only do so much for Sakura, the rest she would have to do on her own.

Menma rubbed his cheek against the top of Sakura’s head. Clan ties to both Suna and Oto. He resisted the urge to laugh out loud and disturb her sleep. He thought she was special, had felt it in his blood, with his chakra, but to have clan ties to both Oto and Suna, no, he never would have dreamt that even possible. 

Civilian born indeed.

An admirable disguise, he would be the first to admit it's ingeniousness. Her chakra levels were low, no, that wasn’t it. They weren’t low. He knew she had much more chakra in her coils and channels than he originally thought she did as evident by their shared transfer. Detectable chakra, that was it. She had a very low level of detectable chakra.

How convenient.

He wondered if it was hereditary, if it was a blood trait of her clan or perhaps a seal of some sort that was put on her to purposefully conceal her chakra while she posed as a civilian. Whatever it was, it had undoubtedly protected her and would continue to protect her as she got older, stronger and took on missions after the academy. Enemy shinobi wouldn’t see her for the threat she truly was. Her looks alone would make a lesser shinobi, an arrogant shinobi, underestimate her. He would teach her how to use that to her advantage.

Menma shifted Sakura’s weight in his arms. Someone had gone to great lengths to conceal her whereabouts. He needed to find out why. He needed to know where the danger would be coming from so he could protect her. His father might know, the Lord Third certainly seemed to know more than what he had told Minato earlier. Menma decided he would start there, soon, after Sakura was more settled in and things had died down a bit.

Maybe there was something in her house that could help them learn more about her clans, maybe her father or one of her mother’s had kept a journal or a diary, paperwork that showed blood work results, or tomes describing the attributes and or affinities of their clan.

Menma frowned. Why hadn’t he thought of it before? He’d never tested her. Tomorrow, he would test her affinity with chakra paper. That would be a start at least. Yes, Menma smiled into Sakura’s hair. They would find out what affinities she possessed, then go to her house and pack her things together. While they were there they would look for anything that might tell them or give them clues as to what clans Sakura’s parents belonged to, what clans she belonged to.

A plan, more detailed than the one he had already begun to formulate in his head, started to take shape within the confines of his mind. 

Menma closed his eyes and sighed. This was nice, holding Sakura like this for a second night in a row. He had never felt more at peace, more fulfilled and content. He nuzzled the side of her face affectionately. He had been bored before her. Bored with the elementary chagrin they taught at the academy, which is why he stopped going, bored of the village and their vanilla way of life. Just bored.

Having Sakura in his life changed all of that, changed him. When he pulled her into his world, he had done so for his own amusement, for his own entertainment but he was quickly realizing, she was so much more. The more he learned about her he knew both of them, could be so much more, together.

“I’ll always take care of you no matter what Sakura.” He promised her sleeping form. “If you promise you’ll never leave me.” He whispered. Eventually, his breathing calmed and he fell asleep. 

Black Kurama looked out of Menma’s subconscious and grinned. ‘Yes.’, his chest vibrated with the same calming peace Menma felt. ‘This is nice. We’ll be together, forever.’, Kurama purred, his head on his paws as he too drifted off to sleep.

“I’m not going to let you do this.” Minato Namikaze wove his fingers together so swiftly Danzo, even with his stolen sharingan, was unable to tell what jutsu the Lord Fourth was unleashing upon him.

Before Danzo could blink, before he could even begin to decide his next move, it was over. Minato set the tenth stolen sharingan eye on the table in the corner of the interrogation room, then moved swiftly to Inoichi leaving Danzo dead on the floor.

“I’m sorry Inoichi. I should have been here sooner. Let’s get you to the hospital. It’s over. Danzo’s dead.” Minato and Inoichi disappeared without a trace, appearing in the lobby of Konoha Hospital a half a second later.

“Nurse!” Minato called out to the nearest medic nin, bracing the unconscious Yamanaka’s weight against his shoulder. “Please take care of Yamanaka san. I’ll be back to check on him in a few hours.”

Hiruzen was waiting for him when Minato returned to the Interrogation and Torture room that still contained the stolen sharingan and the body of Danzo Shimura. Stepping over the six Anbu Danzo had killed before Minato’s arrival, the Fourth Hokage bowed shallowly to the Third. “You wanted proof.”

Minato waved his hand around the blood splattered room, the bloody sharingan eyes on the tabletop, and the body of Lord Danzo on the cold unforgiving floor. “Here’s your proof. Inoichi can serve as a witness. Danzo attacked him and would have killed him if I hadn’t shown up in time to stop him.”

“I only wish, I had gotten here sooner.” Minato’s cold blue eyes passed over the fallen Anbu, his Anbu. “Do you require further proof of Danzo’s treachery, Lord Third?” Minato asked, his voice calm and cold, but not impolite. This needed to be settled once and for all.

“No.” Hiruzen bowed his head. “This happened…” The old man choked on his words. “...because I was weak.”

“Friendship isn’t weakness, nor kindness, Lord Third.” Minato wasn’t a spiteful man. Sarutobi’s own conscience would punish him enough. “Come, the council must be addressed and we need to take care of those.” Minato nodded to the ten sharingan eyes Danzo had stolen from the Uchiha.

“The massacre.” Hiruzen shook with guilt. “Itachi.” He whispered.

“Needs to come back to the Leaf where he belongs don’t you think? I’m sure Sasuke will be pleased to see his older brother again.” Minato almost smiled. Maybe some good could still come from this tragedy.

“The last two remaining Uchiha.” Sarutobi rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

“Belong in Konoha. Come, let’s notify the council.” Minato took pity on his predecessor, clapped him on the back and began to lead him from the room as two Anbu rounded the corner to clean up the mess.

“The eyes?” Sarutobi watched the Anbu place the Uchiha eyes into separate plastic bags.

“I would think they are once again the property of the Uchiha, don’t you?” Minato waited for the spanse of two very awkward heart beats for the other man to respond.

“Itachi will want them, either to use them or to lay them to rest. Do we know, did Danzo say whose…” Hiruzen asked.

“He did not but due to their particularly easily distinguished traits I would venture to say they belonged to the late patriarch and his wife, Izumi Uchiha and Shisui Uchiha to start.” Minato dropped the names of the four most powerful Uchiha of their time, aside from Itachi, like gunpowder to flames. "I did not recognize the other abilities, nor were all of them displayed to me, some having been discharged before my arrival."

“I see.” Hiruzen picked the individual bags up carefully and handed them to Minato. “Do take care of them, won’t you? Until they can be returned to the new Uchiha clan head?”

“You have my word.” Minato thought of his students, Kakashi, Rin and Obito. 

He couldn’t turn back time to fix his mistakes, but he could watch over the future, to make things right for the next generation. Turning his head he looked toward home where he knew Menma and Sakura were sleeping peacefully, probably together against his wishes and smiled. With the power Danzo possessed, that the stolen sharingan gave him, this could have ended so much worse.

So many things in the last few days, he reminded himself, could have been so much worse. He took this as a good sign, as hope for the future. A hopeful future for his son, for Sakura and for Konoha as a whole.

Sarutobi sighed beside Minato and stretched his gnarled hands over his head. “Come Minato, like you said, let’s get this over with.”

“Right.” Minato sealed the bags of precious kekkei genkai into his pouch, inclined his head and flashing away.

“What would you have us do with the body of Lord Danzo?” A pale faced, short Anbu asked Hiruzen before he could follow Minato from the room.

“Hum? Leave it. Take the others to the morgue. We’ll need an autopsy done on each of them. I need to meet with the council. After, I’ll bring a team to dispose of Danzo’s corpse, properly.” 

Emotionless, blank dark eyes fell to the floor in submission as Hiruzen left the room. 

“Orochimaru will not be pleased. He was depending on Lord Danzo’s support for the infiltration.” The other masked Anbu remarked quietly to the pale faced one as he kicked Danzo’s corpse.

“Yes.” The same dark blank eyes followed the trail of blood from floor to ceiling, much like the trail of blood Kizashi Haruno’s murder had left on the walls of the Haruno’s living room when he had killed him and his wife. “It seems Lord Orochimaru will have to rely on the goodwill of the Kazekage after all.”

“Do you think the Kazekage will agree to his terms? It didn’t appear as though Rasa was very fond of the snake the last time they spoke.” The other Anbu was skeptical.

“Things change.” Sai dismissed the other Anbu’s uninformed opinions. Haruno’s daughter lived. Lived in the home of the Fourth Hokage if what Danzo told him was true. “The new plan has already been set into motion.

“New plan? What new plan? No one told me about it.” The other Anbu huffed in aggravation.

“You didn’t need to know.” Sai pulled his blade from his back skillfully turning to the oblivious man.

“Oh? Why not kid?” The Anbu looked up at Sai from the ground where he had been crouching over Danzo’s body. 

“...because you’re not a vital part of it. You’re a loose end.” Sai stepped into the stroke, then back again as the man fell face first onto the floor beside Danzo. “...that needed to be cut.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way, I am placing Sasuke as the same age as Sakura per canon, 8 years old. Team 7 will all be the same age roughly, birthdays depending.
> 
> Itachi in this fic is going to be the popular 6 years older than Sasuke, Menma and Sakura. Making him 12 years old at the time of the Uchiha massacre and Sasuke at age 6.
> 
> Kakashi will similarly be 8 years older than Itachi.


	14. Chapter 14

“Absolutely not.” Homura Mitokado protested against bringing Itachi Uchiha back to the Leaf.

Minato’s mouth tightened involuntarily. They had been arguing for hours now over nonsense. Itachi Uchiha was coming back to the Leaf, if he wanted to come back, which he would. Sasuke was here. It was the least they could do for him after what he had done for them, the village.

“He was only 12 years old. A child like that couldn’t possibly understand the seriousness of the situation we were in that caused the downfall of his clan that required us to, to…” Mitokado’s voice trailed off.

“Ask him to slaughter his clan, his parents? Betray his family for the peace of the village?” Minato refused to listen to anymore of their selfish fear. “He may have been a child then, but he is a man now.”

“He’s 14 years old!” Homura countered hotly.

“Enough. Genin are considered adults at the age of 12 years and Itachi was admitted to Anbu at the age of 12.” Minato stood up and placed both of his palms flat against the surface of the ancient council table that had been there since Konoha’s founding. “The clan head of the Uchiha Clan will return if he desires. I will return to him his full rank and title that was stripped from him after the massacre, he will be reinstated with the honor and heroics the Uchiha deserves for his service and loyalty to Konoha, and the Uchiha compound will be returned to its rightful owners.”

“Hokage sama, surely you must see the folly of such a decision.” Koharu Utatane came to her partner's defense. “Itachi is a murderer and a…”

“Itachi is a loyal and obedient servant of the Leaf who slaughtered his entire clan for Konoha.” Minato repeated himself but was cut off by Shikaku Nara.

“Itachi is the last son of one of the last great clans. He is one of two of the last descendants of one of the greatest shinobi of the founder’s era. We need him here at home protecting the next generation.” The Nara surveyed the council allowing his words to take root in their minds. “Don’t you understand? Itachi IS Konoha.”

Minato nodded, grateful for the Nara’s support. “Word has already been sent to him welcoming him back where he belongs.” 

Hiruzen ignored the pointed looks of his fellow council members and remained silent. Mitokado and Utatane shared a barely concealed look of dismay.

“What of the sharingan you took from Danzo’s body?” Homura inquired, changing the topic.

“What of it?” Shikaku asked the elder before Minato could reply. They hadn’t said one word about Danzo’s death, but they were worried who would get the Uchiha Sharingan. It sickened him. 

“We deserve to know what will be done with them, we need to research them, study them, and make good use of that cursed power.” Homura continued with a disdainful look at Shikaku.

The immensely powerful chakra of the Fourth Hokage pulsed and ebbed across the table moving out like a wave slamming against the shore, locking each member of the council in their seat.

“Let me make one thing very clear.” Minato’s voice was low, barely above a whisper. “The Uchiha have been persecuted enough. It is slanderous comments like yours Homura that led to Itachi’s forced hand in the first place.”

“The stolen eyes will be returned to the Uchiha clan head, who will do with them as he sees fit.” Minato held the eye of every man and woman in the room. “Lord Danzo will be buried without ceremony, but not as a traitor to the Leaf. Dismissed.” 

With a slight tightening of his coils, Minato pulled his chakra back in and around himself releasing the council members from his hold.

The Lord Third sat motionless in his chair as silent as the dead. There were so many things he had wanted to say but no words came out. He understood Minato was doing Danzo a courtesy, for he was a traitor, there was no more doubt in Sarutobi’s mind. Minato was sparing Hiruzen the humiliation of burying his friend as a traitor, not the Leaf. By all rights, Minato could have burned Danzo’s body and been done with it. 

“Hmph!” Utatane rose from her seat with as much dignity as she could muster and stormed out of the room, followed closely by Homura. “Coward.” Utatane hissed under her breath at her old friend. The Lord Third didn’t even acknowledge the slight.

“Thank you.” Hiruzen inclined his head to the Fourth Hokage, and left the room with much more reserve than his peers.

Shikaku exchanged a placid look with his friend beside him, the Akimichi Clan head, Choza Akimichi.

“So it’s true?” Choza asked sadly. “The little Haruno girl is orphaned then?” She was the same age as his own son Chouji. It was a damn shame.

“Yes.” Minato nodded. He had started the council meeting off explaining what had happened at the Haruno house the night before, with a vague description of the events that led to the Haruno’s demise. The events which had resulted from it however, he recant with great detail, particularly Root’s involvement at Danzo’s orders.

“What a shame, but her father was a merchant, why would Danzo want a merchant dead?” Choza shook his head in confusion.

Shikaku scratched the stubble along the left side of his jaw thoughtfully. “Didn’t Kizashi come from the west? Far west, beyond the borders of Suna, from ...what’s the name of that place, the place where the beasts of the forest are said to drink the blood of unwary travelers?”

“Drink the blood?” Choza blinked. “Like the legend of the Oni of the Western Mountains?”

“Bingo.” Shikaku nodded, his hand falling from his face to his belt loop over his pouch. Unclasping the metal latch he shoved his hand into his pouch and pulled out a travel map. “There.” He jabbed the tip of his finger to a moderately large land beyond the Land of Wind’s borders.

“The Land of Oni?” I never knew there really was such a place. I thought that was a joke, you know, something you tell your kids. ‘Behave or we’ll ship you off to the land of ogres and demons” Choza laughed and rubbed his belly. “The beasts of the forest, that’s what they call themselves don’t they, the shinobi there?”

“The men yes, the women, the kunoichi are called uh, fairies or tennyo for their long hair and luminous eyes. A trait Sakura seems to share with her father’s clan if I remember correctly?” Shikaku asked Minato who nodded.

“It’s real. The Land of Oni, but whether or not the tales are true is hard to say, not much is known about the lands that far West.” Minato’s blue eyes looked down at the Nara’s map. “What makes you say Kizashi Haruno was from the Land of Oni though Shikaku? I don’t think I’ve heard of more than a handful of its inhabitants ever leaving their borders. Aren’t they a rather reclusive clan?”

“They are, by all accounts, which are few like you say. I wouldn’t have believed it either but the man told me himself one night.” Shikaku told them now that they were alone in the room, just the three of them. “We were halfway through our second bottle of sake. I think it was right before his second marriage.” Shikaku recalled how down the man had been.

“I don’t think he wanted to remarry.” Shikaku met Minato’s eye with a knowing blink. “I don’t think there’s a man alive that was more devoted to his wife, aside from you perhaps.” Shikaku grinned at Minato who smiled at the compliment.

“No. It was an arranged marriage. Sakura told us a little bit about her parents arrangement last night.” Minato replied absently. Suna, Oto and now the Land of Demons. Just who the hell was Kizashi Haruno? Minato had gotten the impression that Mebuki was the one from a prominent bloodline but if Sakura’s father…

“They don’t actually drink blood do they though?” Choza asked skeptically.

“I doubt it. I think it is more of a scare tactic, to put your enemy off. Most likely they have an affinity that allows them to drain the life force of their opposition, like a chakra drain. I believe the Akado Clan has a similar technique.” Shikaku explained.

“Ah.” Minato nodded. “The Akado Clan have a technique that has the capacity to absorb the physical and spiritual energy of an opponent by simply coming into physical contact with them. A very dangerous and very useful technique.”

“Yes, and the chakra they drain from their opponents can then be used against them. So even if the drainer’s own chakra levels aren’t naturally high, they have the capacity to hold the chakra they drain in their internal chakra reservoir to perform high level techniques that require more chakra than they would typically possess.” Shikaku nodded at the power such a user could command almost effortlessly and indefinitely as long as they were provided with ample doners.

“We have a few Akado here in Konoha, how come they aren’t in Anbu?” Choza asked.

“Well, they are a very skilled clan for such a small clan.” Minato admitted. “However, about fifteen years ago two of the five remaining Akado defected, to Oto.” Minato watched Choza’s face drop.

“Oto? There’s nothing in Oto though.” Choza didn’t understand.

“There was a power switch around the same time the two Akado defected. I suppose they thought they could use that to their advantage to gain status among the lesser ranks. As far as I know, they’re still there.” Minato understood the Akimichi’s disappointment. “Loss of almost half of a clan, no matter how small can cripple even the strongest villages. That is precisely why I want Itachi back in Konoha where he belongs.”

Shikaku and Choza both nodded at their Hokage’s wisdom.

“The Akado that remained though, you said they aren’t in Anbu?” Choza inquired.

“No, by their own choice. The wife of the remaining eldest male was pregnant at the time and withdrew from active service. The boy should be about twelve now. We have high hopes of their clan raising their numbers in the next decade or so.” Minato explained. “Like I hope the Uchiha will when Itachi choses to take a wife.”

“As I recall he’s a decent looking boy and a strong shinobi for all that. The women will be falling at his feet, no problem there.” Choza laughed boisterously.

“Yes well, he’s a bit shy though.” Minato rubbed the hair on the back of his head self consciously. Itachi had always kinda reminded him of himself, and a little of his own son Menma.

“Has Itachi responded to your missive Hokage sama?” Shikaku asked.

“Not yet, but I sent it just before the meeting. Itachi hasn’t been completely cut off from the Leaf while he’s been gone. My sensei, Jiraiya sensei has spoken with him twice in the last year. It seems he found a home with some cast offs in similar situations to his own.” Minato volunteered.

“Like his own, you mean missing nin?” Shikaku asked, this was the first he had heard of this, but it would be wouldn’t it. Clearly it wouldn’t do to have people know Itachi was still in contact with the Leaf, particularly one of the Legendary sannin of Konoha.

“Yes. Missing nin with, what did Jiraiya sensei call it? Ideals.” Minato smiled.

“Sounds dangerous if you ask me.” Choza shrugged. It wasn’t his problem, and the Hokage didn’t seem worried about it, so he wasn’t either.

“Ideals always are. Depending on the person and their ideals, they could be the most dangerous thing in the world.” Shikaku commented pessimistically.

“Or life saving.” Minato laughed at Shikaku’s grimace and slapped him on the back. “Either way, the Harunos are dead, Danzo and Root are no more and the Uchiha of Konoha will thrive once again. I’ll make sure of it.”

“It will be nice having Itachi back in Konoha, he was a prodigy when he was exiled at 12, I wonder what his skill level is like now that he is 14.” Shikaku shook his head in wonder. “He came in only second to you didn’t he Lord Hokage, on the Chunin exams?”

“He did.” Minato shoved his hands in his pockets and smiled. It would be nice to see Itachi again, to see how much he’d grown both physically and spiritually. Jiraiya sensei said the Uchiha was just as quiet as a man as he had been when he was a boy. Jiraiya thought perhaps, it was just Itachi’s nature to be quiet. 

Sakura was quiet, and Minato couldn’t help but see similarities in the two children, only Itachi wasn’t a child anymore. He would need to remember that. Two years, had it really only been two years since the Uchiha massacre.

“I’m getting too old for this.” Minato stretched and groaned shamelessly as he did so.

“We’re all getting too old for this.” Shikaku slouched over, his hands in his front pockets. “I need a drink. Choza, you in? Minato?”

Minato smiled at his old friend's informal speech. Sometimes it was hard being the Hokage, sometimes it was nice just being Minato. “I’d love to but I think I should get home. I want to check on Menma and Sakura. I’m sure Kushina has it all under control but I’d like to be there if she needs me.”

“That’s right, you have a daughter now.” Choza smiled a heartfelt smile at his old friend. “How’s the boy taking to the new addition?”

Shikaku watched Minato laugh a bit nervously and wondered at it. Did Menma not like the girl, he wouldn’t be surprised. Menma didn’t like anyone, in fact Shikaku thought sometimes Menma was a little…

“Menma adores her.” Minato surprised Shikaku right out of his own thoughts.

“What?” Shikaku straightened his spine, no longer slouching, but blinking at Minato in surprise just as Choza’s robust laughter echoed throughout the room for the third time that night.

“I’ll be damned!” Choza slapped Minato good naturedly on the back. “Miracles never cease eh?”

“It’s almost strange how much he adores her. He’s attentive, protective and kind to her. I’ll be honest I wouldn’t have thought of adopting her if Menma wasn’t so responsive to her presence.” Minato admitted.

“Interesting.” Shikaku hummed. “How is the girl, Sakura? How is she handling everything, her parent’s death, moving in with you and Kushina?” Shikaku asked.

“Well, if I didn’t have Menma for a son I would say she was closing herself off, maybe in shock still but I don’t think that’s it. Indifferent, that’s what I would say she is at the moment but happy too. Her home life wasn't a pleasant one and I don’t think she will miss it. She adores Menma almost as much as he adores her.” Minato shrugged. “Kushina is thrilled and Sakura is a good girl. I think she will be good for Menma. I’m glad to take her in, we both are.”

Shikaku nodded. So it was like that huh?

Choza slapped Minato on the back again and wished him the best of luck with the new addition to his family but Shikaku grimaced, internally. He had seen Menma, in the woods training, in the market ignoring the existence of every living thing around him. Adored the Haruno girl? The words didn’t seem right to Shikaku. Sakura adored Menma? It wasn’t any of his business.

“I wish you luck Minato, you and Kushina always wanted a daughter, what luck finding a young girl who needs a family and one who gets along with your son so well.” Shikaku smiled at his friend. If anyone could handle parenthood, Minato and Kushina could. 

The night wind blew through the trees, sweeping the unguarded pages of his book astray. Itachi lifted his head, something was coming, from the South, Konoha. Slender fingers slipped the book back into his robe as he stood solidly on the swaying tree branch just under the canopy of the forest, red eyes scanned the horizon. 

There, a dark spec moving swiftly under that shadow of the moon, a summons. Itachi narrowed his eyes. Was that a flying toad?


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last post for this fic for the weekend. Going to work on Twisted, maybe try to pick it back up.

Sakura pushed the door to her room open and stood there in between the space of then and now. It seemed like a lifetime ago and yet it had been less than 48 hours since she had been home. Not home, this wasn’t her home anymore.

Menma stood silently beside her looking down as her shoulders began to shake.

“We can come back, you don’t have to do this today, or I can do it and you can wait for me at home, in my room?” He offered.

“I need to do this.” She stepped into her old room and began sorting through what little possessions she had.

Sakura folded a dress, a shirt and two pairs of pants into the bag she brought with her. She moved to the shelves on her wall and shoved underwear and socks on top of her pants, two pairs each, then turned to her desk. There was only one thing she wanted from her desk. A book that her real mother had given her of fairytales from ‘Her’ country.

Sakura had never understood her mother when she told her that. ‘Her’ country, Sakura asked her once right before she was murdered.

‘Our country’, her mother had smiled refusing to say more.

Yes, that was the last thing Sakura wanted, then she was ready to go, to leave the rest behind her and start her life over with Menma and his family.

“Wait Sakura.” Menma pulled her by the hand into her father’s old study before she could walk down the stairs to leave.

“I want nothing from there.” Sakura tried to pull Menma out of the room. She wanted to leave.

“There might be something in here, something that will tell us more about your clan, where you come from, don’t you want to know?” He didn’t understand why she was being like this. If it were him he would want to know as much as he could about his origins, not out of sentimentality no, but to use it to his advantage. “Think, what if you possess a kekkei genkai or have the ability to do, I don’t know to do things that no one in Konoha can do because of a rare blood or something? You said your mom was special, that her bloodline was…”

“I don’t care.” Sakura growled, pulling her hand from Menma's.

“Okay.” Menma paused. “Sorry.” He understood now, this was hard for her. He hadn’t meant to be insensitive. 

“I’ll only be a moment, why don’t you uh, go downstairs and I’ll be right there okay?” He hugged her and kissed her forehead. “Better yet, go to the park okay? I can feel your signature from here so I know you’ll be safe. I’ll meet you there when I’m done.”

He didn’t like the idea of her being alone but he knew she didn’t want to be in her old house anymore, just as much as he wanted to search her father’s study. He needed to find the man’s will to see if there was anything in there about her origins, or about her arranged marriage. 

Menma knew there had to be something about her history or her father’s history in the man’s office. There was so little information for Menma to go off of it was maddening.

He could use all the chakra paper on her that he wanted but it wouldn’t give him the vital information that really mattered, the information that only a blood relative could provide him, willingly or not. He would hurry, for her sake.

Sakura nodded and walked down the stairs. Menma watched her walk out the front door. Never before did he care how his words would affect someone like he cared how his words made Sakura feel. He would need to take her feelings into consideration more. He sighed, the things he did for her already.

‘You like it. Don’t fool yourself’, Kurama teased him.

‘Shut up’, Menma growled, but he couldn’t quite keep the smile from the corner of his mouth. ‘Maybe’.

Kurama snorted. The boy was hopeless.

Itachi Uchiha slipped into the Uchiha compound undetected and walked slowly down the street looking left and right. It hadn’t changed since that night, not a bit. It was both reassuring and disturbing at the same time.

Without pause, he slid the front door to his childhood home open and stepped over the threshold. “I’m home.” He called out to the ghosts of his past.

A soft spring breeze came up and around his feet swirling the dust up into his watering eyes. Welcome home, it said before the tears fell, splashing across the front of his mesh shinobi shirt.

Itachi walked into the main part of his home, past the dusty pictures on the wall, sliding back the door that divided the kitchen from the living room. To the side, where the seam of the rooms met was the stain of his greatest defeat. No one had cleaned it up, no one had touched it since...he swallowed hard, calming his heart with every fiber of his being.

Bending at the waist Itachi fell to his knees and pulled a kunai from his belt. With swift accuracy he cut the tatami mat from the floor, rolled the reminder of that dark day up, bound it with the string on the ends and took it outside to the firepit. He would burn the memory from their home, like the guilt from his heart. There wouldn’t be blood to remind Sasuke of that night, but there would be plenty of other reminders, reminders Itachi wasn’t able or willing to cut away. This would suffice for now. Itachi watched the smoke rise from the minor fire jutsu he had used to set the mat on fire and took a deep breath. 

He needed to get going. He needed to meet with the Hokage.

Sakura swung her feet back and forth, back and forth under the park bench as she waited for Menma. She understood why he wanted to search her father’s study, just as he understood why she didn’t want to search it with him. He was much more sympathetic than people thought, but maybe it was only because it was her. She wasn’t oblivious to his true nature, she understood it.

Being broken had its advantages. She could often see pain in other people’s eyes that no one else could. Pain that, if they did see it, they pretended didn’t exist. Sakura had never considered that a skill before she met Menma, but now she did.

In fact, she was beginning to see some of the qualities in herself that Menma claimed he had seen right away. Moving slowly Sakura lifted her hand in front of her face and closed her eyes. If she focused her chakra enough she could almost move it around, separate from her body like a tool or an inanimate object. She thought of the Hokage’s three pronged kunai that Menma also favored, wondering if she could use her chakra to form a blade.

It would be useful to have such an ability. A built in blade. If she could find a way to do it, to perfect it she could make more than just blades, in theory she could make anything with her chakra. If she could find a way to make one inanimate object, she could make thousands, millions. She giggled to herself.

Just like the dream she had last night. Last night she dreamt she and Menma were training in the old caves again. He had spung out at her from the bowles of a pit with a huge axe in his hands and she had deflected the blow with a chakra blade, formed from her own emotional chakra. She knew it was just a dream, but when she woke up in his arms that morning she thought, so was this, this feeling I get when I’m with him. That too is like a dream so why not? Why not try it. 

With her eyes closed, she focused all of her pain and confusion in her heart to her lungs. With a deep breath, she compounded it, pushed it and pulled it into her chakra coils, turning that emotion into energy. With the visual of the three pronged kunai in her mind’s eye she exhaled. Green chakra ebbed and flowed over her hand like water, moving, forming and swirling.

“Think.” Sakura grit her teeth. “Visualize.” She hissed. There was a pain growing in the back of her head, a throbbing pulsation of pressure that she ignored in favor of forming the image in her mind in her hand with her chakra. In her excitement she had forgotten to focus her emotions into chakra, she was tapping into her own reserves, her own very small incomplete reserves.

Sakura cracked her left eye open to peer at her hand in front of her. It was working! She was doing it! “A little more.”

Sakura’s eyes rolled into the back of her head. Her hand fell to her lap and her body slid from the park bench.

Itachi saw the little girl as he rounded the corner of the park path through the trees. She was sitting eerily still focusing on her hand. He watched her chakra flicker in and out of focus as it coated the flesh of her fingers forming the shape of a three pronged, was that a kunai? She was using her chakra to form a bladed weapon?

Incredible. Itachi continued to watch the pink haired girl struggle as he approached her bench. He wondered who she was. He didn’t recognize her. Just as he was about to turn down another path toward the Hokage Tower he saw the girl’s body slip, she was going to fall off the park bench.

Itachi darted forward, picking the little girl up in his arms. “Got you.” He tightened his grip around her smaller body, laying her comfortably on the bench she had fallen from, patting her hair out of her face.

“Get away from her.” An angry voice called out to Itachi a fair distance away.

Itachi felt him move before he saw him, ducked to avoid the three pronged kunai that whizzed past his head embedding themselves in the tree behind the park bench the girl was laying on. “That chakra.” That was the nine tails chakra. Itachi recognized it, from that one night and that one man.

Menma darted forward, three more kunai looped over his fingers, jumping up and kicking off the tree behind the bench, he came down on Itachi before he could blink. “What the…”

Menma spun on his knee looking over his shoulder to the tree he had just kicked off of, to see Itachi standing on the middle most branch looking down at him with red sharingan eyes.

“Uchiha.” Menma stood up straight. “What are you doing here?”

Before Itachi could answer, Sakura groaned from the bench, her eyes fluttering open, her hand holding the side of her head. “Men ma.”

Menma rushed to her side and dropped down onto his knees beside the park bench. “What did he do to you? Are you okay?”

“He?” Sakura tried to sit up but was pushed back down by Menma.

“Don’t move, your chakra, Sakura what happened? Your chakra is drained, we need to get you to the hospital right now.” Menma picked Sakura up in his arms and ran.

Itachi’s red sharingan eyes followed the boy and the pink haired girl as far as he could see them. He watched them enter the hospital, then deactivated his sharingan. So that was the Hokage’s son, the nine tailed jinchuuriki, he had heard that the Lord Fourth had sealed the nine tails into his new born in order to save the village, but who was the girl? Whoever she was, she had incredible chakra control, but shallow chakra pools. Itachi wondered why she would try such a jutsu without supervision.

It was dangerous, she could have died but...he wasn’t one to pass judgement on others. He always pushed himself far beyond his own limits. It’s how you grew, how you got stronger and he could tell, from witnessing the girl for that brief moment. She would be strong one day, very, very strong.

Minato felt Sakura’s chakra flare then dwindle to nothing. Standing up from his chair behind his desk he wasn’t surprised to see Kakashi Hatake jump through the window to bow at his feet. He had asked Hatake, at the suggestion of Hiruzen’s, to watch over the Haruno girl until he had an opportunity to make correspondence with the Kazekage about her arranged marriage. He wasn’t sure how deep Danzo’s roots had grown into the dark places of the Konoha shinobi and wasn’t taking any chances of any harm coming to the girl.

“Hokage sama.” Kakashi raised his head at Minato insistence. “Your son has taken the Haruno girl to the hospital. It seems she passed out from chakra drain.” Kakashi paused.

“What else Kakashi?” Minato asked his former student curiously, it was clear the man had more to say.

“Itachi Uchiha and your son exchanged words, but when the girl began to wake from her chakra drain, your son picked her up and ran her to the hospital for care. Itachi Uchiha approaches, he is walking up the stairs to the tower as we speak.” Kakashi concluded, bowing his head to the floor, his fist planted beside him on the ground.

“Itachi’s here? Already? No one notified me from the gate.” Minato looked out his window toward the gate that checked visitors in and out of their hidden village.

Kakashi’s tone held a hint of pride to it as he spoke again. “Itachi has other means of getting in and out of the village Lord Fourth.”

“Of course.” Minato watched Kakashi for a moment. “You were his Anbu captain.”

Kakashi didn’t respond. It wasn’t a question. 

“Do you see him as a traitor, like so many in the village do?” Minato asked Kakashi.

“Never. Itachi is a loyal shinobi, even when I didn’t know the full truth, even before you briefed me this morning I never saw him as a traitor. The facts never added up Hokage sama.” Kakashi stood then and looked the Hokage in the eye. “Obito would be glad to know there are still Uchiha in Konoha.”

“I think he would be happy too, Kakashi. There will be a ceremony later, to officially welcome the Uchiha Clan head back into the village but for now, keep an eye on my son and Sakura. I’ll visit her in the hospital as soon as I’m done with Itachi. I’m sure he’ll want to reconnect with his brother.” Minato looked to the door. Itachi was just outside, waiting politely. Minato could sense him. “Enter.” Minato called out to the Uchiha.

Itachi pushed the door open to the Hokage’s office and bowed low. “Thank you Hokage sama, for welcoming me home.” Itachi’s voice was soft but confident.

The boy hadn’t changed. The man, Minato corrected himself. “Welcome back Itachi.”

Itachi lifted his head, his eyes passing over Kakashi’s. “Hatake san.” Itachi bowed to Kakashi with respect.

“It’s good to have you back kid.” Kakashi smiled, a real smile at Itachi. At least not all of the Uchiha were doomed. There was still hope, if only a little.

Itachi’s mouth twitched. “It’s good to be home tai chou.”

“Well, there are a few things we need to go over, some papers to sign and then I imagine you’ll wish to see your brother, Sasuke?” Minato smiled at Itachi with warmth.

“Yes, please.” Itachi bowed low to the ground once more in respect.

“Then we’d better not keep him waiting.” The Fourth Hokage waved to the seat beside his desk for Itachi to sit. “Please tell my son I’ll be by to see Sakura later. Tell him not to take her from the hospital before she is discharged by the nurses or the doctors assisting her.” Minato spoke to Kakashi before dismissing him.

“Yes Hokage sama.” Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke.

So, Itachi thought to himself, the girl’s name is Sakura. He wondered what clan she was from and if she was friends with his brother Sasuke, who was about her age.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I lied, this is the last chapter for the weekend. It's a little shorter than I would have liked it but it gets my point across:)

The paper crinkled and crackled between his knuckles. Rasa, the Fourth Kazekage stared down at the letter in his hand, the Sarutobi Clan crest falling to the floor. Rasa crushed the wax seal of the letter into the brick at his feet and stomped out of his office.

The Harunos were dead, their daughter adopted into the family of the current Hokage, the Lord Fourth, the Yellow Flash of Konoha. This wasn’t at all how things were supposed to go, this wasn’t the plan he had painstakingly set to order all those years ago.

“Damn you Kizashi.” Rasa cursed the man who had married his half sister, the one who had run away to Oto dragging their youngest sibling behind her. That damned brat running away like that. He had schemed, he had bargained and all for her. To make sure that the bloodline remained in Suna, he had gone to impossible lengths!

Ruined, all his hard work was ruined.

“Dare I ask what’s gotten you all worked up brother?” The annoying drawl of his younger brother caught the Kazekage’s ear as he passed the doors to the open courtyard.

“The Harunos are dead.” Rasa turned to face his brother Sasori.

“Hum.” His brother’s ember eyes clouded over in thought. “How unfortunate. The girl?”

Rasa grit his teeth. No doubt Sasori would blame him. It had been his decision, Rasa's, to allow their sister to marry the Konoha man, then their other sister. Sasori had been away from the village when Rasa’s scouts had found their sisters in Oto and had been furious when he returned to find Rasa had made a deal with not only Oto but Kizashi Haruno as well.

“Adopted.” Rasa began, then paused realizing Sasori was handling this far better than he was. “You already know. Don’t you.”

Sasori snorted as he walked past his brother down the hall toward the sandy court yard where they could see young Gaara practicing their coveted sand manipulation jutsu. “Of course I do you fool.”

Of course he did. Sasori knew everything. Rasa had learned that at a very young age. His brother’s spy network consisted of dormant living puppets all over the five great nations. Sasori prided himself on knowing, everything about everyone.

Rasa’s victory eight years ago had been short-lived. He had wanted to show Sasori that he too could make wise decisions, that Sasori wasn’t the only prodigy in the family, that he deserved to be Kazekage. It had backfired on him of course, then, just as it had just now. Rasa could feel the points of the crinkled paper digging into the flesh of his palm as he watched his younger brother stand beside his youngest and most talented son, Gaara, the one tailed jinchuuriki of Suna.

“Always the youngest.” Rasa muttered to himself. Gaara like Sasori was the most talented, the most qualified to be the Kazekage however, power of that nature had never interested Sasori. He had abdicated the title to Rasa, unqualified as he was. Gaara however, didn’t have a choice. Gaara would be the next Kazekage, Rasa had made sure of it.

Gaara. Rasa looked down at the ruined paper in his hand. The Hokage had adopted Sakura Haruno. Would he still honor her marriage contract to Gaara? If he would then perhaps not everything would be lost. The bloodline would remain in Suna. If the Hokage didn’t…

He would, he would have to. The contract was legally binding and clear. Rasa had made sure of it, even Sasori had agreed after seeing the contract that it was fool proof, no loopholes, no way around it. Part of their agreement required Kizashi to register the marriage contract with his village. There would be a record of their agreement. Rasa relaxed his grip on the letter in his fist.

Everything would be okay. His half sister’s daughter would return to Suna when she hit her majority at eighteen. Her and Gaara would get married and produce the next generation of Suna shinobi elite. Rasa took a deep breath, his eyes still on his brother and his son and he wondered, did she have it, their kekkei genkai or perhaps the other very useful skill of puppetry?

He needed to meet her. Kizashi had been very adamant they had no contact until their fateful day but he was dead, both of Rasa’s sisters with him. Rasa turned on his heel and walked back to his office. He would invite Sakura Haruno and the Hokage to Suna, to introduce himself to his son’s future bride and his son to his future wife.

“Your father is plotting your future again.” Sasori watched Gaara pull his sand up to form dummies once more in an arch around the courtyard.

“It seems his original plan for your future didn’t go precisely as planned.” Sasori continued to drawl on as Gaara’s sand decapitated each sand figure one after another. “Her parents are dead.”

Gaara’s sand dropped back down to its original resting place on the ground. Teal eyes met his uncle’s bright amber. “Again?”

“Yes.” Sasori’s voice was light, careless. He had kept the boy informed of the events in his intended’s life as the years passed. “It seems this time the father joined the mother in death. How quaint.”

His uncle’s falsely cool demeanor didn’t fool Gaara. He had learned with his uncle Sasori in particular that he must read between the tone, between the words to hear what was really being said and what those unsaid words really meant.

“I understand.” Gaara turned back to the courtyard, his gaze dropping from his uncle’s.

“I’m sure you do.” Sasori left Gaara in the courtyard to play with his sand. Unlike Rasa, Sasori understood Gaara and Gaara, understood Sasori.

Menma held Sakura’s hand as she slept in her hospital bed. This time, unlike last time, she had used far too much of her chakra. The doctors and the nurses all remarked how lucky she was, how unusual it was that she hadn’t died from her chakra drain.

“She must have Akado blood in her.” One of the nurses muttered when leaving Menma alone with Sakura after she had been stabilized.

Akado blood, Menma scoffed. No, Sakura’s bloodline was far more unique and refined for dirty Akado blood. Once it had been clear Sakura would recover without any lasting damage to either her mind or her chakra channels Menma had pulled out several leather bound books he had taken from Kizashi Haruno’s study and read them.

He pulled one of the books across the bed to himself now, one hand still holding Sakura’s and began to flip through the pages. He had skimmed them, all three of them while the nurses and doctors fussed and fretted over Sakura, but now that they were gone, he would reread them at his leisure. When Sakura woke, after he was sure she could handle the information coherently, he would tell her exactly who she was and what their future held for them, omitting only a few details he deemed unnecessary for her to know.

...such as her marriage contract and how it had been registered with the village after it’s signing. A marriage contract that would rip Sakura from his hands at the age of eighteen. Something Menma wouldn’t allow. Something he would have to take care of, and soon before his father went digging too much into the legality of her situation. Tonight. He would have to steal the cursed document tonight and destroy it. 

Then it would be Suna’s word against Konoha's and if the two villages went to war over such a menial thing, so be it. It would be the ideal situation to kill her intended without blame or ramifications.

Satisfied, Menma turned the next few pages over in his hand, shuffling them to the back before settling on the pages he had been searching for. Kizashi’s personal journal.

_Sabaku contacted me today. It was a surprise to say the least. His son was born moments ago resulting in the death of his wife. He claims to be looking toward the future while holding his newborn in his arms. He found his sister, he claims, though I have left to doubt it considering the expense and effort it cost me to conceal not only her but her younger sister Mebuki, the brat. This however, deserves a bit of looking into._

_Ume is six months pregnant. Rasa proposed a deal I simply couldn’t refuse. Marriage. He will allow us to marry without any negative repercussions from Suna if I allow open trade from Oto to Konoha to Suna, under the nose of the Hokage through my regular routes. ‘Our little secret’, he calls it._

_I can’t help but wonder what his younger brother Sasori’s role is in all of this, if he has a role or if perhaps Rasa is going behind his back. A cold day in Suna for Rasa if he is. The older may carry the title of Kazekage, but the younger pulls the strings._

_Even so, while the cat’s away the mice will play and I have waited long enough to have Ume legally by my side and in my arms. I agreed, a deal was struck. We wed within the week, our child will be born in Konoha, born a full fledged citizen with all the rights that entails._

_On one condition. When she grows to her majority, at the age of eighteen she weds Rasa’s youngest son, who Rasa tells me he has named Gaara, the strongest of his brood. There is nothing I wouldn’t give to be with Ume, but this gave me pause. My daughter, my first born whittled away to Suna to serve the royal line as a broodmare, for Rasa could want her for nothing less than her bloodline._

_I’m no fool, but I do love Ume, more than life itself. Kami forgive me, I have agreed to his terms and pray with all my heart, the girl resembles me and nothing of her mother for I can’t bear the thought of Ume returning to Suna, trapped for all eternity._

“She won’t.” Menma squeezed Sakura’s hand as she slept, careful not to squeeze too hard and wake her. “She won’t be marrying anyone but me.” He promised the late Kizashi Haruno quietly under his breath.

The fourth Hokage stared down into the empty file. Where was it? The signed marriage contract for Sakura Haruno to her Suna intended was missing. Minato rubbed his chin and looked around the archives in contemplation. No, he was in the correct row, the correct year and was looking under the correct name. The folder was blank, not the drawer. It had been here at one point in time. It had to have been taken from the folder. The contract existed because the folder was there, if there hadn’t been a contract, there wouldn’t be a folder.

Which meant someone had stolen Sakura Haruno’s marriage contract. Why? Root was no more. Danzo was dead. Were there spies in Konoha from Suna? Impossible, no, not impossible Minato corrected himself, unlikely. The only other alternative, there was someone else in Konoha that was aware of the significance of Sakura’s existence who had their own agenda.

Who, Minato wondered, his mind filtering through every interaction methodically ticking people off. Twice he went through every event in his head, twice he made his mental list and crossed off names one by one. Danzo, was the only name that kept coming to mind, but Danzo was dead. Minato had killed him himself.

Then…

“It has to be someone who was working for Danzo, someone who was privy to his secrets. His right hand, a confidant.” Minato set the folder back into the sliding cabinet and shut the drawer. Who was Danzo’s right hand man, who was his confidant? Minato had no idea, but he knew the perfect man to assign the recon mission to. 

Breathing in and out slowly through his nose, Itachi approached the small figure sitting under the tree in the back of one of Konoha's more remote parks. It was Itachi’s favorite park in Konoha and it made him smile to know Sasuke seemed to favor it as well. He only hoped this reunion would go smoothly.

“Sasuke.” Itachi’s voice was smooth and controlled as he looked down at his little brother under the tree. He could hear Sasuke’s breathing stop, hitch, then begin again in short rapid gusts. He recognized his voice. Itachi stood as still as the dead. “I’ve returned. My title returned to me. Sasuke, I’m home.”

Itachi waited.

“Nii san?” Sasuke’s book fell to his lap and then to the ground as he leapt to his feet, his little fists clenched to his sides, his eyes wide. “You’re back, but…”

Itachi nodded. “I imagine you’ll have some questions, maybe even hate me but before you attack me, allow me to tell you a story.” Itachi sat down on the ground where his brother had been sitting and waited.

Sasuke dropped down onto his butt, scooting a little bit away from his older brother, and listened.

“I had a friend once. His name was Shisui. Shisui Uchiha…” Itachi began.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me what you think of the progression please. Are events moving too quickly, too slowly?


	17. Chapter 17

Sakura sat quietly on the couch in the living room next to Menma and watched the Lord Fourth walk back and forth across the room. He was so different in his own home than what the public typically saw him as. For the second time since her release from the Konoha hospital, he turned to her with a worried look in his eye, far too worried a look for the situation and asked her not to be so reckless.

“You’re still young, and while age isn’t really a factor, as a result of your young age, you aren’t trained enough to be attempting such high level jutsu.” Minato tried to explain to the girl once more. “I’m not saying you can’t, or won’t be able to explore the extent of your skills in the future Sakura but for now, please you must not push yourself.”

He cared. He had been worried. Sakura nodded obediently while Menma cock his head at his father in understanding and contemplation.

“What did you find?” Menma asked his father. “What did Inoichi find when he interrogated Danzo?”

Minato’s mouth tightened. His son had never felt the need to address others with titles or respect that he thought were either his equals or below him.

“I can not discuss that with you Menma, you know that.” Minato sat down in the chair opposite his son and his new daughter. “I’m still trying to figure out what it means.” He relented. It was obvious Menma knew he had found something, just as it was obvious Menma had found something as well.

“Did you get everything you needed from your home Sakura? Do you need to go back again or need help lifting and moving any of your furniture? I know the room we have for you is sparse, perhaps you’d like to bring over your desk?” Minato offered.

“I’m fine. I have everything I need.” Sakura said quietly.

Minato tried to smile kindly at the girl. No doubt the recent events of her chakra drain and the death of her parent’s was catching up with her. The poor girl looked so tired. Hadn’t she gotten enough sleep in the hospital already.

“Here.” His wife leaned over him, setting a plate of biscuits on the table with a new pot of tea. “A small snack before dinner. You’ll be home for dinner won’t you Menma?” Kushina looked from Sakura to Menma with barely disguised hope.

“No.” Menma rose to his feet pulling Sakura up with him by the arm.

“Yes.” Sakura replied, sitting back down and pulling her arm from Menma’s, reaching forward and taking a biscuit from the tray.

Kushina grinned. Just as I thought, she snickered to herself, her eyes darting to her husband’s surprised face. I win, she crowed internally.

“Sakura.” Menma growled low in the back of his throat.

“Menma.” Sakura looked up at him with calm but firm eyes. “I want to have dinner as a family.”

Looking down at the stubborn set of her jaw he sighed, he gave in. “Fine.”

Kurama chuckled softly in his head. ‘Give her this boy. She’s never had it before. It’s important to her.’

‘Whatever.’ Menma sulked while Kurama and his mother chuckled.

Minato blinked. No one had ever made Menma do something he didn’t want to do. All of the previous reservations Minato had about adopting Sakura faded away in the smiles of Sakura and his wife. Everything was going to be okay. He had done the right thing by taking her in, for all of them.

“What’s this?” Kushina picked up a manila folder on the coffee table next to the biscuits.

“Ah, something that I need to take care of sooner than later.” Minato took the thin file from his wife that he had composed of Sakura’s inheritance paperwork. “I’ll be back later, Kushina. I need to write to the Kazekage.”

Kushina nodded. She understood, it was about Sakura then. She looked back down at the file. “You’ll be home for dinner though right?”

“Promise.”

Sakura watched Minato kiss his wife, pat his son on the head, then smiled as he patted her on the head just like he had patted his son, before walking out the front door.

“We’ll be back for dinner too.” Menma pulled Sakura back up by her hand and led her to the door. “We’re going to go train. Sakura needs to get stronger.”

Kushina smiled as Sakura and Menma shut the front door behind them. Everything would be okay.

Itachi waited for his little brother to say or do something, anything but Sasuke didn’t move. If Sasuke had tried to hit him, stab him or attacked him in some form Itachi would understand. If he had tried to hug him, cried or yelled Itachi might have known what to do but he didn’t. He didn’t move. He barely breathed.

“If you...don’t want to move back into the compound with me, I understand. The Lord Third told me you were moved into an apartment after, that you didn’t wish to remain alone in the compound. I’ll understand if…” Itachi was cut off by a stifled gasping noise.

“You’ll understand?” Sasuke choked on his words that he so desperately wanted to get out. “Haven’t you been understanding enough? Why Itachi nii? Why don’t you hate them!” He was angry.

Itachi paused. “Sasuke.”

“No!” Sasuke ignored his brother’s calm, controlled voice. It was too much, just too much for him to sit here and listen and, and… “The whole village thought you were crazy! They told me you were a traitor, that you, that you…” He choked.

Itachi understood. “...but now you know the truth and so will everyone else.”

Sasuke grit his teeth. How could he sit there so calmly, so placidly and...Sasuke hung his head. “Fine.”

“Fine?” Itachi asked, not understanding what Sasuke meant.

“Fine. It doesn’t matter. You’re home. It’s fine.” Sasuke looked up at his brother, eyes moist. “Welcome home nii san.” His face broke out into a wide innocent grin, much like the one Itachi was used to seeing on his little brother’s face and he felt his heart clench.

He wasn’t alone anymore...

“Thank you Sasuke.” Itachi bowed his head to his younger brother in thanks. “It’s...good to be back.”

Minato watched the Konoha hawk fly west toward Suna and hoped he had done the right thing by telling the Kazekage the unfiltered truth of Sakura’s situation. Like he had told Hiruzen, the truth was always best. He wasn’t a fool though, he was the Hokage. The truth was always somewhere in between the lies, only this time he thought it best to tell it raw. No good would come from deception with a situation like young Sakura’s.

Blue eyes like his son’s looked down at his desk. The results of the first and second autopsy lay in a folder on the corner. Minato lifted the top of the folder, his eyes scanning the diagrams and explanations, causes and determinations. The sharingan had been used against both Anbu, just as he thought.

These first two reports, along with Inoichi Yamanaka’s confession and witness statement were enough to condemn Lord Danzo one hundred times over. Minato sighed. How did such a loyal Konoha nin turn so obsessive?

Minato’s thoughts circled back to those of his son. Obsessive. Yes, Menma was obsessive over Sakura but...it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing as long as he could control the situation. Control. Such an unpredictable word. Minato took a deep breath in through his mouth and let it out through his nose.

His next step depended on the reaction of the Kazekage.

Menma led Sakura down the familiar tunnels deeper and deeper into the long forgotten training caves. He was moving so quickly she found it difficult to keep up with him.

“Menma?” She asked him as he pulled her along. “Are you upset at me for something?”

Upset at her for something, he snorted. “No, worried. We need to get you stronger. What happened today will keep happening unless we can deepen your chakra pools, extend your reserves.” He clarified.

“What if I wasn’t there?” He asked her, stopping inside the last cave, the one that was lit with an unknown jutsu of the Lord Second’s. “You could have died.” His voice was quiet.

“I know we haven’t been friends for very long but if something happened to you…” His fists clenched at his sides and his whole body seemed to shake. “I would never forgive myself.”

“Oh.” Sakura watched Menma carefully. “...but it wasn’t your fault.”

“You don’t understand.” Menma looked up at her. “It would be my fault.”

Sakura didn’t understand, he was right. “...but.”

“I promised you, I told you I would take care of you.” He moved closer to her, wrapping his arms around her neck and nuzzling the side of her face. “You’re mine, remember?”

She nodded as he continued to hug her. “I know but…”

“So, it would be my fault.” He didn’t care if she didn’t understand. He didn’t care if she didn’t know foxes mate for life and that he had claimed her for himself. It didn’t change their future. As far as he was concerned their future was set, defined and unbreakable.

“Okay.” Sakura aquiensed with grace. “So, let’s train then?”

“Yeah.” Menma didn’t move, his nose buried in the hair that hung over her shoulder. 

“First.” He drew back from her slowly. “I need to know what your affinities are and what you know about your clan Sakura.”

“My clan but…” She didn’t like where this was going. “...it’s all second hand really. I don’t know how much of it is true.” She warned him.

“Do you have it with you?” He knew she did. “The book your mom gave you? Let’s start there, after we check your affinities, we’ll read it, together okay?”

Sakura licked her bottom lip. “Okay.”


	18. Chapter 18

Teal eyes focused on the desert hawk that had just left the arm of his father, Rasa Sabaku the fourth Kazekage. A missive to Konoha, or so his uncle Sasori had told him earlier.

His uncle had told him when he was five, that one day, when he was old enough, he would marry a girl from another village, that it was his responsibility and that he owed it to his people to make such a valuable connection.

Gaara swung his legs back and forth over the side of the east gate of Suna. His responsibility. He seemed to have a lot of responsibility. He owed it to his village? Why did he owe them anything, they hated him, loathed and despised him? What had his village ever given him to entitle them to such generosity, such self sacrifice? Nothing as far as he could remember.

He wasn’t even entirely sure what marriage was, much less how you were supposed to do it. He remembered hearing his older siblings talking to one another one day, when they didn’t think he was listening, about marriage, about their parents' marriage. It didn’t sound so bad, not to be alone. At least if he were married, he would have someone to talk to other than his uncle Sasori.

Not that he wasn’t fond of his uncle, only Sasori was...different from other people and not always the most conversational of people. He was reserved, intelligent and cynical. A worthy teacher, mentor and adviser, but an entertaining companion, not so much. Not that he himself talked a lot, but still...perhaps if he had someone to talk to.

Gaara tilted his head back to look up at the sky as his father jumped down from the village border, back to the Kazekage office. Two birds flew overhead, one flying beside the other in tandem. Was that what marriage was? Equality? He wondered what his intended was like, he wondered if she would like him or run from him screaming, like so many others did. He wondered, would she understand him, like only his uncle seemed to understand him.

He had so many questions to ask her and he hadn’t even met her yet.

Gaara placed his hand over his chest. He could feel the dark chakra rolling around inside of him. Would she understand that he was a jinchuriki, did she even know what that was and what it would mean for her? He wasn’t sure, but he hoped so. He didn’t want to be alone anymore.

A low deep dreadful laugh filled his ears. It started behind his eyes and seeped into the membrane of his consciousness. ‘No one likes you, not even me and I’m inside of you.’

Gaara swallowed. ‘You’re wrong.’ The demon was right wasn’t he, she would hate him, she would loathe him.

More sinister laughter. ‘I’m not. You’ll see, she’ll be like everyone else. She’ll scream and cry out in fright when she sees you, she won’t want to be near you, she won’t want to marry you. You’ll be alone, forever. She’ll hate you, like everyone else who claims to be closest to you.’

‘You lie.’ Gaara pulled at his hair, hunched over his knees on the ground and squeezed his eyes shut. ‘Uncle told me about you. He told me you hate me, not what you say, not what you say!’

‘You’ll see boy. You only have me. No one will love you because you don’t deserve love.’ Shukaku’s voice dripped with malice as he spoke to the boy. ‘Hate, blood and death. That is the only future for you, blood.’

‘I never wanted to be a jinchuriki. I never wanted you to be in me. I didn’t ask for this.’ Gaara remained on the ground, shoulders hunched but he couldn’t protect himself from something that was already inside of him. 

His uncle had taught him some mental exercises to do when Shukaku got like this, to calm him but he couldn’t concentrate, he couldn’t stop thinking about what the demon said. It was true. No one loved him, everyone hated him. He felt so alone. All he had was Shukaku, everyday, every night constantly whispering, constantly reminding him that he was the reason his mother was dead, he killed her, he killed her.

Gaara pulled at his hair, clenched his teeth and tried to focus on that spot in his heart, that one place his uncle told him the demon could never find, that one part of him that was human, was...normal, but he couldn’t find it, he couldn’t get past the…

‘I never wanted this Shukaku.’ Gaara tried, over and over to placate the beast.

‘Do you really think that matters to me? You’re still my jailer.’ Shukaku rolled over in Gaara’s mind, teeth barred as he glared at him over his shoulder. ‘...and I want out.’ Shukaku sneered.

“No!” Gaara fell to his knees, the sand rose and swirled around him.

“Gaara.” Sasori stepped up onto the wall beside his nephew. “Focus.” Chakra strings shot out from his uncle’s fingers and wound themselves around the boy, round and round binding his arms and legs together.

“Breath.” Sasori advised in his typical calm, cold tone. “You’re not weak. Breath and calm yourself.”

“Yes.” Gaara’s eyes flickered black, then yellow back to teal over and over like a strobe. Over and over until…

Gaara sighed, his whole body relaxing. “Thank you Uncle.” The boy took a deep breath and sighed heavily one last time before opening his eyes to look up at his uncle.

Sasori looked down at his nephew with disdain. “You must learn to control that beast Gaara, I tire of assisting you with something you should have mastered by now.” Sasori lifted his chin and looked out over the shifting sand, past the walls of Suna, toward Konoha.

“The laughable marriage your father painstakingly set up for you will fall apart if you can’t control yourself.” Amber eyes dropped back down to his nephew’s now calm Mediterranean. “I doubt the girl will be anything of substance however…” His uncle paused. “There is a chance she will prove useful. It would be a shame if you killed her before I had a chance to evaluate her abilities.”

Ah, Gaara understood. His uncle rarely did anything that didn’t benefit him personally. Even helping Gaara control Shukaku, was all for Sasori’s own benefit. Gaara had never been under any false pretenses, he knew his uncle didn’t love him, but used him. He just didn’t know yet, what his uncle planned to use him for.

Gaara might be young, but he was far from being a fool.

“Water.” Menma took the wet paper from in between Sakura’s fingers and replaced it with another. The paper crumbled and fell to the ground before them as she let her chakra seep out from her fingertips. “Earth, two affinities, nice.” Menma hummed to himself, he was pleased.

Cocking his head to the side, he wondered…”Here let’s try again, just in case. I doubt you have three affinities, two is uncommon enough but not unheard of in more affluent clans but…”

He placed another slip of chakra paper in between her fingers and watched as the paper split in half, right down the middle. Menma’s eyes widened in surprise. She had three affinities, three and one of them was wind which was not unheard of, his father had wind affinity, as did he but it wasn’t as common as water or earth, particularly among Konoha shinobi.

It was however more common among Suna shinobi of the desert.

Sakura watched the two halves of the whole fall to the ground before her, then looked up to see Menma looking at her with his mouth slightly agape. She blinked. His jaw snapped back into place and the surprise from his eyes faded back to his normal bored sort of complacency.

“Three?” Sakura wasn’t sure, lacking the knowledge usually provided in an everyday shinobi household, but she was sure that three affinities isn’t something a regular chakra wielder typically possessed, and Menma’s reaction to the discovery of her third affinity confirmed it.

“It appears to be so.” He eyed her calmly, sucking air in through his teeth as he considered the possibilities of her possessing a fourth affinity. He himself possessed four but…”Here.” He placed another slip of chakra paper into her fingers and waited. Nothing happened. He frowned.

It wasn’t as though he had expected her to have a fourth, it would have been phenomenal but he couldn’t help but be slightly disappointed. “Looks like three it is, Sakura.” He smiled at her.

“That’s more than I…” Sakura gasped as the paper between her fingers crinkled up into static. She dropped the paper from between her little fingers and watched it float harmlessly tot he ground, landing between her toes and Menma's.

They both stared at the paper for the spans of three heartbeats.

“Kami, I can’t believe…” Menma could barely breathe, he was so excited. She was perfect. Three affinities was great, more than great but four. “You’re perfect, absolutely perfect for me.” Menma pulled Sakura into his arms and rubbed his cheek against hers.

He was practically purring. “Now, let’s not let all that natural talent go to waste.”

Sakura blinked. She was stunned. She was nobody.

“Menma.” She didn’t know what to say. She never knew. No one had ever told her that she was...did they know? Did her father even know that...she was pissed, she was angry. She was livid and she didn’t know why. She wanted to, to, to hurt someone and...her chakra exploded around her, knocking Menma back and away from her. He flipped through the air righting himself mid fall, skidding to a halt on the opposite side of the cave.

“Sakura, it’s okay. We can use this to our advantage. I’ll make sure you become strong like me, we can…” He was speaking but he could tell she didn’t hear him. She had her arms wrapped around her chest, her chin down. She was glowing with intense green chakra. She was burning with something that he recognized all too well.

Hatred. Loathing. Disgust and mistrust. She was pissed.

“Oh shit.” Menma’s arms rose to protect his face as another explosion of chakra erupted from Sakura. His whole world went black.

“Shit.” He groaned. “She might be even more powerful than me.”

Kurama chuckled within the confines of Menma's subconscious. ‘If she were a jinchuriki, she would be.’

‘I promised her, one day.’ Menma watched Sakura collapse across the cave from him, her body crumpled to the ground. She had passed out again. ‘It looks like we might have to split you sooner than later Kurama, if only to keep her from passing out from chakra drain.’

‘She can handle it boy. I know she can.’ Kurama was purring into Menma’s ear. ‘An unstoppable team, that’s what we’ll be.’

Menma nodded, taking a step forward toward Sakura, then paused. Did the fox mean himself, he and Sakura would be an unstoppable team or did the fox mean him. Was Kurama looking to replace him? If he gave Sakura half of Black Kurama’s chakra...would he lose her?

‘What’s wrong boy, why do you hesitate?’ Kurama was pacing now, back and forth, back and forth. ‘Infuse half of my chakra into the girl. She is strong, she can handle it.’ The fox insisted.

‘Why are you so insistent, why now? You thought it was a bad idea before, you warned me against giving her my own chakra and now you want me to infuse her with yours, why Kurama?’ Menma was suspicious.

Kurama chuckled. ‘She is our mate.’ His tails flicked behind him. ‘You said it yourself. Foxes mate for life.’

‘I never said it, I thought it.’ menma corrected the fox.

‘One and the same boy, and you know it. Get on with it. I would like to bond with my mate.’ Kurama growled at Menma in frustration.

‘She isn’t yours. She’s mine.’ Menma didn’t like how possessive Kurama was becoming over his Sakura. ‘Remember that fox.’ He warned the tailed beast.

Kurama rocked back on his haunches and smirked. Let the boy think that for now. He would see, one day. It didn’t matter to Kurama, as long as he got what he wanted. ‘Fine’, the fox conceded. ‘She’s yours.’

...for now.

Minato’s head snapped up at the sudden surge of now familiar chakra. “Sakura.” He spun in his chair, looking out of the multi paneled window of the Hokage’s Tower toward the river, toward the old training caves. “Hum.” Minato hummed to himself. “So that’s where he goes.”

Momentarily, Minato contemplated leaving his office to investigate, then paused. There was no need. Hatake was watching the girl no doubt, just as Minato had asked him to. She would be fine. Minato relaxed, sitting back down in his chair. Besides, Itachi was expected any moment, he had a mission to give him, an important one.

“Right on time.” Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage smiled at Itachi as the Uchiha knocked, then opened the door.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last update until the weekend~

Kakashi darted up the cliffside, careful of the overhanging tree branches, toward the sudden burst of chakra. Two Anbu had dropped down beside him after the first burst of powerful chakra, but he dismissed them quickly. 

The Hokage had told him, keep it quiet, and he would. Speculation was just that. Without confirmation, the Anbu could think what they liked. Besides, none of them ever challenged him. He had earned his ruthless reputation honestly.

The second burst of chakra was even more powerful than the first. Kakashi could feel it through the solid rock in front of him. Using an advanced earth style jutsu he melded into the side of the cliff and moved against the earth pressing his chakra and his body through the dense mass until…

”A sealed barrier?” Kakashi hadn’t been expecting that, but he ought to have. The Lord First and the Lord Second had made these caves with their own hands, with their own unique jutsu. He could go no further.

Settling down on the edge of the cliff, Hatake looked out over the village, his village. It had changed so much over the years, he had changed. The world had changed. A time of peace, he scoffed. A blatant illusion and he knew it, the Hokage knew it and...he looked down at his hands. 

He knew there wasn’t any blood there but he could smell it, the stench of hot copper. He could feel it, the heartbeat, the flow of warmth as it pulsed over his knuckles when he…

“Fuck.” He hissed and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. He had bit the inside of his cheek again, badly, like always the blood dripped down the back of his throat, over his lips and…”Shit.” He closed his eyes and shook his head back and forth.

Itachi was back in Konoha. He had hoped that would help. He had hoped it would somehow relieve him of the guilt of…”Obito.”

The name slipped past his lips like the blood dripping down the back of his throat. No, he wasn’t bleeding much, no he wasn’t in any physical pain, no...he could handle physical pain. It was everything else that…

He shut it out. 

Whatever ‘It’ was, it had no place in his world, not anymore. Once he had hoped to find reprieve, but no...that was over. It had died long ago, under a rock, far away from here in the last war. No, it had died, with his fist punched through its chest, eyes wide open and gasping for air that would never come because...his whole body trembled. “Rin.”

“Fuck.” He ran his hands through his already messy white mop. “Fuck.” He groaned, he thought he had laid his demons to rest, he thought that he had gotten over...their deaths? Their murders? His own weaknesses. Fool. He was a fool.

He didn’t deserve their forgiveness. He didn’t deserve to forgive himself. No, but never again would he let...if he could..

Kakashi could feel the kids behind the rock face. He could feel them moving around. They lived. Of course they lived. One was the son of the Lord Fourth and the nine tailed jinchuuriki, the other...what the hell was the girl. There was no name for whatever the girl was, no precedent, aside from her mother. Rare bloodline indeed. He had read her file, but aside from her file he knew, first hand how terrifying she could be, would become. He knew that…

_“I fear for the future Kakashi san. I fear for my daughter’s happiness. Sakura, who looks so much like her mother, Ume.” Kizashi Haruno tipped his glass back, draining it of its contents for the sixth time that evening. “I’m to be married in the morning, to her brat of a sister. An arrangement, I find myself unable to avoid.” The man continued to babble, to confess._

_Kakashi remained still, not quite sure why the man had chosen him to confide in. No one in their right mind would choose him to tell their woes to, not only because he wouldn’t care, but there would be nothing he could do about it, nothing he could offer them for their trouble. Kakashi wrapped his large hand around his own cup, sat and waited for the man to continue, and continue he did._

_“I’ve arranged a marriage for her, for Sakura. She doesn’t know. I don’t want her to know. Heaven knows she already hates me. Kami forgive me but we were cruel, so cruel to her but…” Kizashi paused to refill his cup. “How could I love her, how could I hold my little girl knowing, knowing that I had condemned her to, to be part of, fuck Hatake, please promise me something, please look after her because, because…”_

_Kakashi looked to his right. The obnoxiously magenta colored head was flat on the bar top, drool falling from the open gap of the man’s mouth._

_“Sure.” Hatake nodded to the bartender for another drink. “Whatever.” ___

__“Sure.” Hatake repeated the same words he had said after Haruno had passed out on the bar beside him two years ago. “What the hell do I do now?” Kakashi rolled his eyes heavenward as he ran his fingers through his hair once more._ _

__“Who in their right mind would ask me to look after their daughter?” Hatake asked himself, but Haruno hadn’t been in his right mind had he, no. He had been desperate, depressed and...deranged with grief from the loss of his wife Ume Haruno, Sakura’s mother._ _

__Kakashi had only met Ume once before she died, on a mission before her retirement. Few in Konoha remembered that Ume Haruno had once been an active kunoichi, a ranked shinobi in their village, but Hatake did._ _

__Vividly._ _

__She had been...terrifying and from the chakra that was still seeping from the rock underneath him, her daughter Sakura, was growing up to be just like her mother._ _

__Terrifying._ _

___“Just a straight forward assassination hum?” Ume Haruno muttered under her breath as she read their mission scroll. “I take eight months off of active duty and the first thing they give me upon my return is a crappy assassination?” She rolled her eyes and tossed Hatake their mission scroll._ _ _

___“Why the hell am I partnered with you anyway?” Ume had one hand on her hip, the other was twirling a kunai between her pinky and pointer finger. “Don’t you, I don’t know, like to work alone?”_ _ _

___Kakashi narrowed his eyes at the obnoxious woman. He didn’t care if she was older than him, that she had just joined the village and just given birth to a baby girl...if she didn’t shut the hell up soon, he was going to throttle her._ _ _

___“Is your hair really that dull grey or do you bleach it?” Ume walked closer to Kakashi and raised her hand as if to touch his hair._ _ _

___Ume began to cough and choke from the smoke Kakashi had left in his wake, after using a replacement jutsu, to escape her curious hands._ _ _

___“Bit of a prude aren’t cha kid?” Ume was laughing at him. He hated her._ _ _

___“Do me a favor ‘Old lady’, don’t die. I won’t rescue you if you get into trouble. The mission is what’s important, not your survival or return to the village.” Kakashi darted out the gate into the surrounding woods, and ran north, toward their assigned target._ _ _

___After an hour of running at full speed, he came to a stumbling halt, blinked, then ducked._ _ _

___“Shit woman!” He cursed, he thought he had lost her. He had just been contemplating going back for her when...he ducked again, then rolled. He couldn’t feel her chakra, no that wasn’t it, he could barely feel her chakra. He had to concentrate to find it. How odd, or rather, predictable for her._ _ _

___Turning to the left where his head had just been he saw not two, not four, but six kunai embedded three inches deep into the tree behind him. His eyes narrowed as he turned back to his ‘Partner’._ _ _

___“A little jumpy aren’t you?” Ume grinned at him, her long blonde hair blowing over her shoulder as a cold spring wind rustled through the forest around them. “I had heard so many good things about you too.” She cocked her head to the side._ _ _

___“I admit…” Ume dropped the kunai effortlessly and accurately back into the thin loop of her cloth belt. “I’m disappointed.” Her eyes had lost all of their teasing humor as she looked up at him again._ _ _

___“Son of the White Fang of Konoha.” She placed one dainty foot in front of the other as she came closer and closer to him on his tree branch. “The Copy nin of the Leaf.” She stopped directly in front of him, her voice low barely a whisper as she looked up at him with her wide green eyes._ _ _

___“Did you steal that sharingan like some say or did that kid really give it to you before he died?” Ume looked directly into Kakashi’s eyes, one red and spinning, the other the color of mild dead steel._ _ _

___“Can you even use it?” She reached up to touch his eye, to...take it from him, tauntingly. “Maybe it would serve me better? What do you say, Hatake? Fight you for it hum?”_ _ _

___He could feel the heat of her breath against his lips. “Bitch.” He sneered. “Take it if you can.”_ _ _

___“I was going to. I didn’t need your permission.” Ume leapt to the side to avoid Kakashi’s chidori, spun on her heel and kicked up and out._ _ _

___He dodged, she shifted her center of gravity lower, flipped onto the palm of her hands and swung down, then up and over the tree branch pinning him to the trunk with her thighs. Twisting her body at her torso, she swung her weight down and tore him from his feeble grasp, chunks of the tree broke away with his grip as they fell to the forest floor._ _ _

___She landed on her back, he landed on top of her. Ume looked up into red and slate._ _ _

___“Shall I show you?” Hatake asked the woman underneath him. “How well I know how to use this borrowed sharingan?”_ _ _

___Ume smiled up at Kakashi with such a look of pleased delight that it unsettled him. He blinked. He didn’t understand._ _ _

___“That’s all I needed to hear Hatake, son of the White Fang.” Ume sighed, then began to laugh. “I guess Konoha nin aren’t that different than Sound, or Rain, or Suna for that matter.” Her tone was more contemplative than angry or annoyed. At least she had stopped taunting him._ _ _

___Kakashi blinked. Was she mad? One minute she was trying to steal Obito’s sharingan from him, the next talking to him like they were old friends._ _ _

___Ume smiled at Kakashi’s clear confusion. “It’s good to know you didn’t steal it, that’s all.” She shifted under him, squirming to the left, as though that explained everything. It didn’t. “Get off me, you’re heavy for such a scrawny kid you know.”_ _ _

___She had been weighing him out. He understood. “Oh.” Was all he said as he lifted his weight from her person._ _ _

___“Yeah, well I had to be sure you know. The things they say about you in Suna and Oto aren’t all that you are, are you?” She dusted the front of her clothes off. “I guess that makes sense though, not everything they say about Sand nin is true either or about shinobi from the land of Demons.” She laughed out loud._ _ _

___“They don’t really drink blood, you know.” She poked Kakashi in the side of the cheek and giggled at his confused expression again. “Your dad, he killed my parents, did you know that?”_ _ _

___He hadn’t. “Is that why you were going to steal my sharingan? It was a half hearted attempt. You’re not strong enough.” He countered foolishly in his own embarrassment._ _ _

___“Oh?” The flash of her beautiful green eyes had been his only warning, unfortunately, Ume was much quicker than he thought. Her smile was the last thing he saw before he passed out._ _ _

___He woke up a week later in Konoha Hospital with a near death chakra drain. Ume had returned him to the village after draining all but 1 percent of his life force to prove a simple point, gone and killed their target on her own, only to return with a bowl of dog biscuits that the target was well known for, for his nin kin as an apology, or to rub it in his face...he still wasn’t sure._ _ _

__Damn woman._ _

__Years later he would learn exactly what had happened to him that day. She had disabled his sharingan in a blink of an eye, her eye, her left eye to be precise. Then had immobilized him with her right one._ _

__Ume Haruno, had been the most terrifying woman Kakashi had ever met and he knew, just by those two brief explosions of chakra, that her daughter, Sakura Haruno would be just fucking like her._ _

__Menma knelt down beside Sakura, his hands pressed hard into her chest as he leaned over her body whispering to both her and the fox in his head. ‘We have to do this slowly Kurama.’_ _

__‘I know that.’ The fox growled. ‘I’m the one who told you to do it slowly, get on with it though, it will take a long time and she wanted to be home for dinner.’ The fox reminded Menma._ _

__‘Okay, just do your part will you?’ Menma slowly, evenly began to push his chakra to his finger tips. Sakura’s body jerked under his touch, he pressed on, his heart in his throat. ‘If she dies…’ He blinked._ _

__‘She won’t, trust me like I’ve trusted you, like we will all trust one another, once this is complete.’ Kurama was so close to getting what he wanted, so close to finally getting the jinchuriki he had always longed for. The boy was clever, talented and amusing but what Kurama really wanted, what he had desired long before the Lord First had sealed him into that woman he called his wife...was an equal._ _

__Red eyes looked down at Sakura though Menma’s blue ones. Sakura could be that partner he had always wanted and had always been denied. She was kind and gentle and, and...understanding. She wasn’t cold or controlling. She wouldn’t restrict him or punish him. She liked him, he could tell. She was curious about him. She wasn’t afraid of him._ _

__Maybe one day, she could love him._ _

__‘Do it boy, come on.’ Kurama encouraged Menma. ‘See her eyes are fluttering, she’s fine, more, give her more.’ So close, he was so close._ _

__‘I am.’ Menma growled out. ‘This isn’t as easy as it looks you know.’_ _

__Kurama grumbled, pacing back and forth in Menma’s mind, watching, waiting, praying to kami that it would work._ _

__‘What is this?’ Menma tried to pull his hands back, release the pressure that he could feel building up under his palms._ _

__‘Kurama, are you, is that you?’ Menma asked the fox._ _

__There was no response._ _

__‘Kurama?’ Menma called out to his fox but there was nothing there._ _

__Kurama would ignore him at times, mostly when they argued, but never had he blatantly ignored him out of spite or for his own amusement. Did that mean...he looked down at his hands, his mind began to race, he felt faint._ _

__Menma’s heart was pounding in his chest like a jackhammer. His pulse was erratic and his body felt cold, so cold. It felt like…_ _

__’Kurama, what’s happening, what is this and why won’t you answer me?’_ _

__‘My hands, I can’t…’_ _

__She’s draining my chakra from my coils. She’s pulling Kurama from me, he realized._ _

__“Shit.” The word fell from Menma’s mouth as he fell over top Sakura, his eyes rolling into the back of his head._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me~


End file.
